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Yes,
we were naïve. Let’s admit it - confession is good for
the soul after all. All those years ago, we came blindly into this
Premier League idea thinking that such an extraordinarily wealthy
institution would know exactly what it was doing, that it would
be a smoothly running, well oiled machine, acting justly and equitably
on behalf of all its members, irrespective of size or status.
Actually, no, that’s not true. How stupid would it have been
to imagine that? But we never expected it to be this much of a shambles.
Nor that it would be so barefaced as it has been in the case of
West Ham, who finally wrestled their way out of the bottom three
last Sunday.
Congratulations to them on the way they set about the job of surviving,
but let’s make no bones about it. They should be long, long
relegated by now after the Tevez affair. Nobody doubts that Tevez
is a fine player, nor that he has been the inspiration behind their
recent run of results.
But neither can anyone doubt that he should not have played for
the Hammers. All the evidence clearly points to the fact that from
the day he “signed” he was ineligible according to the
rulebook. And whenever a team plays an ineligible player, there
is a points deduction, without any question.
In the case of Bury, they were even thrown out of the competition
this season for that very offence. Which is how it should be. Playing
an ineligible player is essentially cheating and ignorance is no
defence.
According to every precedent, West Ham should have lost points for
every game in which Tevez and his compatriot Mascherano appeared.
Instead, apparently for no other reason than the season is getting
on a bit, there’s a fine instead - that’s like saying
that murdering a centenarian isn’t as serious as murdering
a teenager.
The price of a place in the Premier League next season - the most
lucrative season ever when West Ham are guaranteed something like
£50 million - is £5.5million, the fine West Ham got
in place of a points deduction. If that’s the admission fee,
I can find you 75 clubs quite willing to stump it up - wouldn’t
you put your cash on a bet that’s guaranteed to come in at
10-1? Let’s all do it and have a 92 team Premier League. I
know there’s no precedent, but if the Premiership is selling
seats at the top table, shouldn’t we all get chance to pay
to play?
Yes, it is sad for the Hammers fans, but not as sad as it is for
Sheffield United’s, the fall guys. Sunderland and Birmingham
probably aren’t ecstatic either - they might have fancied their
chances of finishing above the Blades next year, but West Ham? Less
appealing.
For those in the Championship, a shambolic West Ham, coming down
in disarray might offer a less threatening option than a focused
United who know all there is to know about the Football League.
If the ruling is not overturned, the integrity of both the Premiership
and the Championship will have been compromised for seasons to come.
And accuse me of paranoia if you like, but do you really think that
if Watford, Sheffield United or Wigan had been in the dock, they’d
have escaped with a fine? Nope. They’d have fallen victim to
the Premier League’s ethnic cleansing that’s designed
to only allow “big clubs” to survive.
Don’t think that’s as far fetched as it sounds. You only
have to hear the erstwhile Arsenal head honcho, David Dein, waxing
lyrical about the way American sport is run to realise that the
days of a NFL style franchise system is the end game for those at
the top.
Create an hermetically sealed top tier, impervious to attack from
outside, and then relegate the rest of us to the role of feeder
clubs, akin to college football in the States, and you’ve got
rid of that pesky element of competition that those Luddites keep
wittering on about. We’re the best and, so long as we don’t
let anybody else play against us, we will always be the best. QED.
all of which ignores he fact that the US and the UK actually are
separate cuontries with different traditions, different geography
and different sporting history. Replacing one culture with another,
in either transatlantic direction, is ludicrous.
Listen to the complaints of the big boys that some members of their
50 strong playing staff don’t get the competition they should,
that their reserves team should play in the Championship instead
of Scunthorpe. Listen to the pathetic arguments that some of them
- the richest ones inevitably - trot out when they’re preventing
the television money being distributed around the national game.
Look at the way that any handouts - irritating small change found
down the back of the sofa and dumped in a collecting tin - are only
given to the Championship in an effort to divide and rule the Football
League clubs.
You might not have much time for the Football Association, but the
worst they can be charged with is incompetence. It’s the Premier
League - who, tellingly, have dropped the “FA” from their
branding - that has the shark infested waters. If only Robert Shaw
was still alive...
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