Wrexham fielding ineligible players

[benjii]

75k fine.

Fuck the EFL.

 

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/cr89z5pj5n2zo

 

[LiberalCommunist]

Wrexham should consider themselves rather fortunate they didn't face Middlesbrough with those eligible players. The club would surely have been wound up with immediate effect if that was the case. 

[TheAlehouseBrawlers]

£50k with £25k suspended. That’ll hurt.

I’m sure one of their owners will rummage through some old trouser pockets for enough to cover that.

Wonder if their manager was aware…

Edited 4 hours ago by TheAlehouseBrawlers

[Sheaf Saint]

Immediate expulsion from the competition they did this in should be the only sporting sanction available, right?

Right???

[Lighthouse]

So basically it was just sloppy work from one of their admin assistants in filing some paperwork for players they had signed legitimately. Nothing to really see here.

[BARCELONASAINT]

wasn't it Rotherham that got a points deduction for doing the exact same thing?? Double standards by the EFL?!

[Saint Garrett]

Other teams have had points deduction, but generally the rule is if they win they get points deduction, and if they don't then its a fine.

Seems a bit stupid logic to me, but there ya go.

[benjii]

6 minutes ago, BARCELONASAINT said:

wasn't it Rotherham that got a points deduction for doing the exact same thing?? Double standards by the EFL?!

Presumably you found the 602 Euro fine Barca just received to be broadly acceptable? 😂

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cmpwg0lqxkd4o

 

[Sheaf Saint]

17 minutes ago, Lighthouse said:

So basically it was just sloppy work from one of their admin assistants in filing some paperwork for players they had signed legitimately. Nothing to really see here.

Ignorance of the rules is no excuse. 

[Lighthouse]

15 minutes ago, BARCELONASAINT said:

wasn't it Rotherham that got a points deduction for doing the exact same thing?? Double standards by the EFL?!

If you mean this:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/32433528

Then no, it wasn't the exact same thing. His loan had expired and he shouldn't have been played.

5 minutes ago, Sheaf Saint said:

Ignorance of the rules is no excuse. 

Absolutely, that's why they got a fine, so it's all sorted.

[benali-shorts]

Presumably Dragan and Phil the Hoover will be duty-bound to make an amazingly funny video about the morality of this ahead of their next visit to us. 

[revolution saint]

I'm looking forward to Dragan and Spors doing a shit video advertising Netscape.

[Ted Bates Statue]

This is going to end up with a spiderman meme situation of both sets of fans calling the other side cheats next time we play...

Didn't mind their video mocking us at the time, but they would have known about their own rule-breaking by that point in time, when they would have done better to keep schtum. Would be nice for their fans to be a bit more circumspect about us next time we face them, rather than acting like we denied them a shot at the premier league.

As a default position, I'd tend towards sympathy over what is almost always an admin error, but the precedent is there for points deductions even in the event of defeat, going all the way back into the 19th Century (although I assume that maybe there have been countless other incidents that were quietly resolved by financial penalties). https://www.footballsite.co.uk/DYK/DYK29-PointsDeductions.htm

I'd be interested to understand the nuance in the EFL's decision making better, or maybe should just assume they flip a coin and head to the pub. Maybe Tonda can explain it to us when we face them next.

For genuine brazenness, the Tevez affair for West Ham seems like the precursor to the likes of Manchester City doing whatever they want, and seems to be worse than I remember: https://stefanborson.substack.com/p/revealed-what-really-happened-with-6b0

Guessing Wrexham were trying the "we can't get penalised if we didn't have any points in the first place" defence this season, in which case I'm happy to let them have their fun with their impending relegation battle. After all, they'll need something for their TV show that's a bit more interesting than a recruitment hunt for a secretary. Wonder if Phil Parsons offered them any words of sympathy or advice as part of his ongoing crusade on achieving compliance with the EFL rulebook? Maybe he should apply.

[spyinthesky]

I was Secretary of a local football club a few years back and made a mistake about signing a player six days prior to semi final, which the team won, instead of the 7 day rule.
We were thrown out of the competition and had no redress which was fair enough.
Shame we werent under the control of the EFL and it may only have been a fine.

[Ken Tone]

1 hour ago, Lighthouse said:

So basically it was just sloppy work from one of their admin assistants in filing some paperwork for players they had signed legitimately. Nothing to really see here.

Ah but was he an intern? 😉

It really does seem double standards to me. If the paperwork hasn't been done then they haven't been signed legitimately.  They were ineligible and this was a very light punishment.  

[tdmickey3]

2 hours ago, benjii said:

75k fine.

Fuck the EFL.

 

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/cr89z5pj5n2zo

 

The EFL didn't want to look bad on Netflix, perfectly understandable 🙄

[Graffito]

They’re not very good at following rules. Opened an extension to their training facility before it had planning consent and didn’t apply for consent until it was nearly finished. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cd942vzly27o

[MarkSFC]

What a joke from the EFL. But not unexpected is it.  I would love to know what Dragon is thinking about this.  Let’s hope they get lots of injuries and lose lots of games and get relegated. That would be karma. 

[BARCELONASAINT]

2 hours ago, benjii said:

Presumably you found the 602 Euro fine Barca just received to be broadly acceptable? 😂

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cmpwg0lqxkd4o

 

Perfectly acceptable 🤣

[Saint86]

3 hours ago, Lighthouse said:

So basically it was just sloppy work from one of their admin assistants in filing some paperwork for players they had signed legitimately. Nothing to really see here.

A bit like a young intern going up to watch boro's training a day late and getting Hackney's fitness status wrong?

[Lymington Saint]

Wierdly the EFL have been consistent here.  Neither player actually took part in the games even though one was an unused sub, so no points benefit so just a fine.  Would have been different had he come on.  This is the standard approach.  Just feels a bit odd given what happened to us last season.

When AFC Wimbledon were in the Ryman league they were initially deducted 18 points for fielding an ineligible player - who had signed from Cardiff and they hadnt got international clearance!  Reduced to 3 points on appeal when common sense prevailed

 

[Lighthouse]

22 minutes ago, Saint86 said:

A bit like a young intern going up to watch boro's training a day late and getting Hackney's fitness status wrong?

Nope, not remotely like that at all. One was an accident, one was deliberate. There is absolutely no sporting benefit whatsoever to filing some paperwork incorrectly for two players they had legitimately signed.