Leicester City have been referred to an independent Commission for alleged breaches of Profit and Sustainability rules (PSR).

The Foxes are allegedly to have broken profitability and sustainability rules (PSR) when they were in the Championship last season.

If found guilty the Foxes, who will play in the Championship again next season, could be handed a points deduction.

It means the club are now involved in another legal battle with the Premier League, having earlier this season won an appeal that prevented the League from charging them for breaching PSR rules in 2022/23.

An EFL Spokesperson said: “The EFL notes that the Premier League has today referred Leicester City to an independent Commission for an alleged breach of Profit and Sustainability Rules for the period ending season 2023/24.

“The EFL commenced an investigation into this reporting period following the March 2024 submissions and as is permitted in accordance with EFL Regulations, jurisdiction for that passed to the Premier League at the conclusion of the 2023/24 season on the Club’s promotion.

“We will now await the outcome of the Premier League proceedings and until then are not able to comment any further on the matter.”

Leicester won an appeal against a previous charge aimed at them for the 2022/23 campaign when they were relegated to the Championship.

The Midlands club argued that the Premier League did not have the authority to charge them because they were officially an EFL club by the time the accounting period had come to an end.

The case went to a tribunal and Leicester were acquitted of the charges, this avoiding a points deduction.

However, the Foxes may find their hopes of overturning a similar sanction more difficult this time round.

Sections of the club’s support have vented their frustration at key decision making at the club centred around recruitment, player contracts and financial mismanagement which has plagued the club in recent seasons.

Leicester City released a statement on Tuesday morning that read: “The club is pleased that it successfully defended the Premier League’s challenge to the Appeal Board decision in relation to the PSR assessment period ending FY23, which was the main focus of these proceedings.

“The Premier League’s own rules provide a deliberately high threshold for any challenge to the decision of an Appeal Board.

“In this case, the Appeal Board’s decision was only capable of being overturned if it could be shown to have resulted from a ‘perverse interpretation of the law’ or was a decision ‘which could not reasonably have been reached’

“The Appeal Board decision was reached by a highly experienced panel (including two former Court of Appeal judges) and, although the tribunal may have disagreed with the decision, it dismissed the Premier League’s challenge, finding (consistent with the arguments made by the Club all along) that the Appeal Board decision ‘could not sensibly be seen as resulting from a perverse interpretation of the law’.

“The tribunal also concluded that the Premier League was successful in establishing jurisdiction on one of the two grounds argued by the Premier League with respect to the assessment period ending FY24, and the Premier League has now referred this to an independent Commission.

“Consistent with its previous commitments, the club intends to engage cooperatively in this matter now that the Premier League’s jurisdiction has been established for the period ending FY24.

“However, we will not be able to comment further on these proceedings until they are concluded, due to their confidential nature.”

Discussing Leicester’s ongoing plight, talkSPORT’s Simon Jordan says the Premier League must now make a stand and any hope of the Foxes finding another loophole would make the League look stupid.

“Well, the tectonic plates of the Premier League and the EFL have shifted together, so that the situation that Leicester were able to tap dance their way through last time isn’t going to be allowed again,” Jordan said.

“If you recall, in 22/23, they got relegated from the Premier League.
“The Premier League wanted to sanction them, and they were told they were outside their jurisdiction, because they’re no longer in the Premier League, they’re in the EFL.

“So Leicester’s argument was we weren’t in the EFL, so we didn’t have to give you any projections for the EFL season 23/24.

“And they reason why they didn’t want to give them projections for 23/24 is because they knew they were going to breach PSR, and the Championship would have told them to sell players to meet their obligations, so they didn’t want to do that.

“So they tap dances their way through the situation, so they were in a Bermuda Triangle of getting relegated in 22/23, can’t get caught by the Premier League, and then ultimately not being under the inherent guidance of the Championship or the EFL in 23/24.

“Because when they landed into the Championship, the deadlines had already been set for the information that the EFL demanded of them, which Leicester refused to give. So Nick DiMarco [barrister that helped Leicester] tap danced his way around that.

“Now of course the Premier League will have looked at that and said, ‘Well that can’t be right, that’s not what we’re looking to achieve, that can’t be the idea that clubs can dance their way through legislation.”

He continued: “If they were to find a way through this again, how foolish, how stupid would the Premier League and the EFL look?

“But over and above all of it, how stupid do they look anyway with PSR? They look stupid full stop.

“You’ve got Chelsea selling a women’s team to an effective ownership model that already owns Chelsea for £200million to get around PSR. This is not what football was conceived for.”