Friday, 27 April 2007
Hammers miss points deduction but get £5.5m fine
It has been announced that West Ham have been given a whacking £5.5m fine by the Premier League but will not be deducted any points. I can't remember anyone ever receiving such a extraordinarily high financial penalty. Of course it is a tad cheaper than the £30-odd million the Hammers would lose if they got relegated.
It has been announced that West Ham have been given a whacking £5.5m fine by the Premier League but will not be deducted any points. I can't remember anyone ever receiving such a extraordinarily high financial penalty. Of course it is a tad cheaper than the £30-odd million the Hammers would lose if they got relegated.I expect now that Eggert Magnusson will try to recoup the money from ex-chairman Terence Brown and managing director Paul Aldridge, who were responsible for signing the Tevez and Javier Mascherano. The question is, that since the club have been found guilty, will Carlos Tevez be allowed to continue to play the remaining games of the season? The report carried the threat that "the registration of Carlos Tevez can be terminated."
Wigan (and others of course) will be hoping that Tevez, will be unable to play tomorrow, something that may appease Paul Jewell a little after he called for their relegation rivals to get points deducted, unlike Pards, who was quoted as saying that these decisions should be made on the pitch, which was Magnusson's argument too.
If I look at similiar recent examples of misconduct, Bury got thrown out of the FA Cup for fielding an ineligible player, whereas Accrington Stanley got fined for the same offence. Lower down the food chain in a great example of the one rule for one, AFC Wimbledon, got chucked out of the FA Trophy after ex-Addick Jermaine Darlington played after signing from Cardiff but before his papers made it from the Welsh FA.
The Isthmian League club were also fined and docked an incredible 18 points, since reduced to 3 but maybe enough for them to miss out on a play-off place.
Following the match-fixing in Serie A, Italian authorites took the approach of deducting points and relegating clubs, a fairer way in my view than just fining a club a couple of players' annual wages.
The Premier League never had the balls of course to deduct points from West Ham, so this scenario was not entirely unexpected but losing their talisman Tevez, may well be enough to consign them to the drop.
¶ 10:39
