Arsenal prove that West Ham money won’t help Sheffield United
What a strange week it’s been for Sheffield United fans. Well over a year since their controversial relegation from the Premiership, an independent tribunal rules in their favour over the West Ham/Carlos Tevez affair. The tribunal found that Tevez earned at least three points for the London club in the run-in to the end of the season, thereby keeping them up at the expense of the Blades.
United can’t be reinstated to the Premier League but it’s been reported they are demanding around £30million in compensation. Jubilant Blades fans have already started spending the cash, and given their lowly position in the Championship, such a boost to the coffers would come in very handy in the January transfer window.
However, fast forward to Tuesday night and a visit to the Emirates Stadium in the third round of the Carling Cup. With an average age of 19, Arsenal completely destroyed United, scoring six without reply. The club and its supporters were brought back down to earth with a bump and the gulf in class could hardly have been wider. The tantalizing promise of tens of millions of pounds seems a hollow victory in the light of such a stark reminder of how far behind United now are.
Unless you manage to get straight back up, relegation from the Premiership is a disaster for football clubs. They immediately lose money, players, stature and, in many cases, fans. It takes a long time to recover from that and most don’t manage it. I don’t have a particular axe to grind for Sheffield United or against West Ham but why some clubs’ offences are penalized by deductions of up to 25 points, while in this case no points deduction was applied, seems grossly unfair. The Premier League can’t have expected this case to go so far, or for United to have emerged victorious, and they must take responsibility for the affair and ensure no other clubs have to go through a similar situation again.
Written by Louise Moran, a professional sports journalist who blogs about football on betfair.com.
that’s what I was thinking on Tuesday as well – SU won’t necessarily get back to the PL, or even survive next time around, through this money.
To think that the club owners are doing this just to ‘make money’ themselves as opposed to getting the club back up…really sad.
West Ham we punished, and whether its harsh enough or not those lot up North should be suing those who punished us.They won’t get 30 million either.
To think that shows you have no idea about the managment at SUFC, the case may ultimatly yield money for United but the premise of the case as always been about justice. one team out of the two involved cheated and got found guilty its only misinformed people like you that believe some of the media hype involved.
I’m a Blade and whilst I hope that we get the money I think that a lot of people are overlooking the fact that one of the main reasons West Ham were in such a poor league position was due to the disruption caused to their team by the signing of the two Argentinians. I believe that the signings were ‘forced’ on Pardew. (I’m sure a lot of managers would have appreciated this intrusion though!) If this ruling is really just based on the positive effect Tevez had at the end of the season then I beleive it is flawed. On another point, have the Premier League now changed its rules to ensure that there are fixed penalties for such rule breaks so that this kind of situation doesn’t happen again?
West Ham fans who say “we’ve already been punished” are missing the point. The fact they were found guilty and fined by the Premier League is a separate matter. The FA tribunal found them liable for Sheffield United’s damages. It’s not further punishment it’s a straight-forward claim for compensation following on from a guilty verdict. As for West Ham setting themselves up as moral guardians of the game…that’s a little hard to take.
Hey i am a hammer through and through and agree we did wrong. But this is ridiculous going from court to court. so why dont arsenal go to courtt and say if they had Eduardo fit they would have maintained top spot last season, why doesnt watford go to court to claim the point from their game at reading. legal battles are bringing english football in to disrepute lets just get on with the football itself and enjoy the glorious game and accept most teams have probably broken the law at one stage whether it be the fans or a bad tackle or foul gestures. no one is perfect!!!
Yes, Wham were punished, deservedly so, with a massive fine. The FA and PL as governing bodies set a fine to fit the crime.Now with a panal of lawyers agreeing that Tevez was worth 3 points to the hammers, SU are looking for a big pay out. The whole affair reeks of double standards SU should be reminded that they would not allow Steve Kappa to play against them by Warnock’s own addmission. That is third party control over a player they had sold. We also now seem to approve third party control over our beloved game and it is highly paid lawyers who can predict matters on the pitch and deliver their verdict on results. The whole situation is becoming a farce and not something any genuine football fan wants to see. Once we let the lawyers take over the controll of matters such as this our game will be far removed from the working mans sport that it was intended to be.
Hammers, face facts your board messed up and then messed up again. Once guilt was established the PL’s response should have been a points deduction and revoking of Tevez’s registration. Neither happened and West Ham are now just as much a victim of the PLs incomptence as Sheffield United. That’s why this whole mess has dragged on too long. Why should Sheffield United let the matter drop? Would you expect that of your club if you felt an injustice had been done to it? The evidence of the last few days says not.
Quite frankly, I just want to get on with watching football. The compensation, whatever it finally amounts to will be of little consequence to to a team which is now floundering in the Championship. To suggest that a man of Kevin McCabe’s integrity is looking to line his own pockets could not be further from the truth. He has all long been looking for justice. The continuing claims can be attributed to many things including the comments of the second panel, who clearly stated that had they been sitting, in the first instance, they would have deducted West Ham points. Lawyers could debate this until kingdom come and no two panels would ever come to the same conclusion. I believe that this comment provided the impetus for Kevin McCabe to continue with his ‘crusade’. Whatever, one thinks, the crux of the matter lies with the continuing lies of Scott Duxbury. In my area of work, a Chief Executive would have to fall on his/her sword, and accept accountability for their action and words. Unfortunately, it looks like he is going to get off ’scot free’ pardon the pun!
Didn’t see one Blade fan whinge when you lot beat us 3 nil and a certain Mr Tevez was playing then. You went down because you lost a stack of games, simple as that.
What might have been a good idea was for the PL not to have profited from the £5.5million it fined West Ham for breaking the rules. It really does make it seem as though the rules can be broken if you have deep enough pockets. I think that is what has wound a lot of people up. How does a fine actually affect a club if it doesn’t prevent them from carrying on business as usual – which is what happened. That sort of money gets you a sixth of Berbatov. or a decent, but ultimately average player. It doesn’t affect a PL club.
The PL got it wrong and the Blades suffered. Now it looks like West Ham may have to suffer. Who knows, maybe West Ham can sue the PL for compensation for every penny that they have to pay the Blades. That might make the PL think very carefully when handing out future ‘punishments’.
A very worrying prospect about this situation is what could happen the next time the two teams meet. From my own viewpoint I have no axe to grind with West Ham supporters, or even the people who broke the rules in West Ham’s name. The whole situation is where it is because of the men that ‘run’ the Premier League and I believe that that is where people should be venting their anger – not at each other.