Wolves fined for 'weakened' team selection

[SuperMikey]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/w/wolverhampton_wanderers/8521603.stm

 

I think it's stupid that they've been fined, surely they can select whoever they bloody well want to? Ridiculous rule imo, if you've got a couple of big games coming up after a game you're surely going to lose, why risk your better players getting injured/suspended?

[RedAndWhite91]

Why haven't Man Utd et al been fined in the past for sticking out weakened teams in cup competitions?

[SuperMikey]

Why haven't Man Utd et al been fined in the past for sticking out weakened teams in cup competitions?

 

Exactly, it's a very, very flawed system. The FA need to be asking serious questions about some of their rules, because some of them just border on the absurd.

[Crab Lungs]

Er, I suppose they are claiming that it devalued the PL? Maybe you should fine the Skates (not that would be a lot of use), Bolton and Wigan for paltry crowds and the bigger sides for having the audacity to rotate their squads.

 

****ing EPL, don't forget.. they lifted the embargo on an insolvent football club, bottled dealing with the Skates plea to sell players and actively tried to bail them out with money.

 

I don't only hope the Skates die soon, but I f()cking hope the Premier League collapses on its fat, bloated self. Disgrace.

[Saint Keith]

this fine for wolves is fukcing scandalous. wolves live within their budget, which means they havent got a huge squad to rotate from. pompey have a massive squad they havent paid for and cant afford, and have had no sanctions. what a bunch of c unts

[AndyNorthernSaints]

I might be in the minority here but i think it's good they have been fined. People forget about the fans who pay alot of money and travel a long way and expect their team to at least try to compete rather than play a reserve team because the players might be tired having to play two games in a week inbetween playing golf/play stations/sitting at home every afternoon.

 

Of all the times i've watched Saints play at Old trafford, i can't remember Saints playing a weakened team. We may not have won many times but at least the fans knew the team would try to win and quite often gave Manure a very competitive game.

 

If Wolves want to field 10 reserves to play at Old trafford, then why bother turning up at all, why not just say " sorry we can't win" against the big teams.....The premier league these days seems to have too many teams like Wigan, Bolton, Blackburn, Wolves etc who are happy to just survive and don't bother even trying to upset the big clubs.

[Saint Keith]

I might be in the minority here but i think it's good they have been fined. People forget about the fans who pay alot of money and travel a long way and expect their team to at least try to compete rather than play a reserve team because the players might be tired having to play two games in a week inbetween playing golf/play stations/sitting at home every afternoon.

 

Of all the times i've watched Saints play at Old trafford, i can't remember Saints playing a weakened team. We may not have won many times but at least the fans knew the team would try to win and quite often gave Manure a very competitive game.

 

If Wolves want to field 10 reserves to play at Old trafford, then why bother turning up at all, why not just say " sorry we can't win" against the big teams.....The premier league these days seems to have too many teams like Wigan, Bolton, Blackburn, Wolves etc who are happy to just survive and don't bother even trying to upset the big clubs.

 

maybe not at old trafford, but we certainly did at Arsenal 5 days before the cup final. did those fans that went get short changed that day? dont remember us getting fined for that, because it suited us to do so, like it suited suited wolves at old trafford

[Arizona]

£25,000? This means they will have to fine Portsmouth £950,000 for playing a weakened team all season.

 

Appaling fine IMO. It's just terrible on so many levels. They have ignored the big teams doing this dosens of times in the past. McCarthy has the right to pick whoever he wants. Who are the FA to say what his strongest team is. If, as MM suggested, his first choice 11 were tired, surely the fittest 11 are the best?

[Kadeem Hardison]

From today's Guardian Fiver:

 

WHOSE RULE IS IT ANYWAY?

 

As anyone stupid enough to listen to what Richard Scudamore has to say will know, the people in charge of football are making it up as they go along. Chancers to a man, they're flagrantly winging it, taking the game in various different directions – down the pan, up its own jacksie, into administration – without an effing clue what they're actually trying to achieve in the long run. The long what?

 

Take the goons on the Premier League board, who have given Wolverhampton Wanderers a suspended £25,000 fine for fielding a Tea Lady XI at Old Trafford in December. Despite parking the canteen in front of goal, Doris, Irene, Edna, Nora, Edith, Ada, Chris Iwelumo, Myrtle, Sylvia and Blanche couldn't keep Manchester United out, losing 3-0, and now the game's governing body has come down on them like a big plate of iced buns.

 

"The board deemed that the club had failed to fulfil its obligations to the league and other clubs in the utmost good faith and was therefore in breach of Rule B13," were the first words muttered in today's improv workshop. "The board had sympathy for the explanation submitted by the club in relation to similar cases from previous seasons," continued the least amusing off-the-cuff riff performed since Greg Proops and Josie Lawrence were mainstays of Channel 4's Friday night schedule. "However the board ruled that this case could be differentiated from the other matches cited and that disciplinary action was warranted."

 

Exactly how they differentiated Wolves' Tea Lady XI from, say, Manchester United's Knackered Old Geezers Who Clean Out The Old Trafford Bogs In Exchange For Free Carling Cup Tickets XI that faced Hull on the final day of last season – Bert, Arthur, Les, Ernie, Tosh, Norm, Roy, Gary Neville, Bill, George and Len - wasn't explained. "You have to be realistic," said Premier League chief executive Scudamore at the time. "United have got a squad, and therefore you can't argue that they deploy the benefit of that squad. Alex Ferguson's going to put a team out that he intends to win that game." Eh? Why didn't United get... or why have Wolves been... er... oh. Oh! The Fiver is confused. Not as confused as Scudamore and pals, admittedly, but confused nonetheless.

[St Landrew]

It's good squad selection and management by McCarthy. If the Premier League don't want this sort of thing to happen they need to cap the amount of money that can be spent on player transfers and players wages, terms and conditions, so that there is a more even and competitive league where any team has a good chance, on the day, of beating the other. It's the Premier League's own fault that they have allowed the balance of club domination to become so one-sided.

 

Mick McCarthy played the percentages, to good effect, and has been fined for it. Wrong.

[Ash]

It's good squad selection and management by McCarthy. If the Premier League don't want this sort of thing to happen they need to cap the amount of money that can be spent on player transfers and players wages, terms and conditions, so that there is a more even and competitive league where any team has a good chance, on the day, of beating the other. It's the Premier League's own fault that they have allowed the balance of club domination to become so one-sided.

 

Mick McCarthy played the percentages, to good effect, and has been fined for it. Wrong.

Exactly. The Premier League has created a competition where the gap between top and bottom is massive, so teams like Wolves have next to no chance of getting a result at places like Old Trafford. To punish a team for realising this is pretty silly.

I feel sorry for the Wolves supporters who travelled but McCarthy has to look after the squad first and foremost.

[AndyNorthernSaints]

maybe not at old trafford, but we certainly did at Arsenal 5 days before the cup final. did those fans that went get short changed that day? dont remember us getting fined for that, because it suited us to do so, like it suited suited wolves at old trafford

I'd say a midweek game days before a fa cup final is a bit different than a league game. If i remember right Arsenal played a weakened side as well.

[St Landrew]

The premier league these days seems to have too many teams like Wigan, Bolton, Blackburn, Wolves etc who are happy to just survive and don't bother even trying to upset the big clubs.

 

Don't you think that says more about the Premier League setup than it does about the teams in it..?

 

What is the most boring league in top professional football. No, actually it's the Scottish Premiership. And why..? Because only 2 teams have any realistic chance of winning anything. The English Premier League seem intent on following their example, as season after season it is the same clubs who are up there. Liverpool might actually consider themselves one of those, and likewise so do Arsenal. But both are actually being dropped slightly by Chelsea and ManU. The title isn't consistently being contested by 4 clubs in the EPL, but by 2. The other 2 are there just for frills, and the rest are there to produce a league. They are mere cannon fodder and they know it.

 

This is because ever since the EPL was formed the tables have stacked up against the up and coming clubs. There is a glass ceiling, and it is mainly 5th place. If you're really good for one season or two, it may be as high as 3rd. There is also the gate receipts rule that was changed back in the late 1980's, in favour of the bigger clubs. It meant that all gates receipts, for league matches, would be kept by the home club. Great if you are ManU and have a huge stadium [they make it even bigger every few years], but not so great if you are Fulham. In the FA Cup, they keep to the old tradition of half shares, hence the big pay-day for minnow clubs that get to big stadiums, these days. It was always thus, every week, once upon a time, and it gave smaller clubs a chance to compete. Not now. Perhaps it's why the big clubs don't give a toss about the FA Cup. Very little extra money..!

 

Something has to be done. Putting the clock back, and returning to 4 divisions would do no harm at all. Capping the wages, terms and conditions of players would help. Limiting the percentage of player costs to a club to a lower percentage, by Premiership rule, rather than by advised limit would help too. And finally, I would suggest a squad cost purchase limit. For example, in the Premiership, a squad may cost £80M [or lower, this is just an example] to purchase. It could consist of say, 18 relatively costly players, or 30 cheapish ones. Then, after the measures were implemented, the rules would be given a 5 year settling in period. After that, clubs would be told to field their strongest possible teams, whenever circumstances permitted, with no grey areas for debate. Plus, there should be a fund for any club which finds itself, through little or no fault of its own, on very hard times. Those times should be much easier, given the few measures that were implemented 5 years previously.

 

I don't expect the clock to be turned back such that clubs would have to once again share their gate receipts, all the time, as this would be an immediate sizable loss of money to bigger clubs that could leave them in a dangerous financial state. But also, they wouldn't be allowed to put all of that income into ever more costly players, on the pitch, with that squad cost limit in place. But they could use it to lower ticket prices. Now wouldn't that be good..?

Edited 18 February, 2010 by St Landrew