How the West Ham tribunal proved there's no justice in football

Swindon Town were double relegated for offences Spurs wriggled out of with a reduction of a 12pt penalty to £1.5m fine. The same rules had to be applied to an extraodrinary decision as Eggert Magnusson not Terence Brown is Chariman. Irvine Scholar was not Alan Sugar in 1994!! Scholar was jailed for what he did!! NO PTS DEDUCTED!!!

sour grapes are an age old thing, but it seems that sheffield united are taking it to new levels. just get it through your head, it is the fact that you threw away a 10 point, thats right a 10 point cushion that you were relegated!! grasping at straws does not take away the one true fact to all of this sorry saga, the fact of the matter is you were not good enough to stay up!!

If you cannot draw or win at home to Wigan on the last day of the season to stay up then you deserve to go down.

This article is old hat the matter is dead, Sheffield United deserved to go down on form, West Ham deserved to stay up on form. If Sheffield United keep challenging a decision every time they lose, apart from wasting their and other peoples money on friutless legal challenges they will lose any sympathy they gained during their ill fated campaign. I am beginning to think there are bad losers and then there is Sheffield United who are out there on their own as the worst bad losers of the season.

Biased and ill-informed article. As a neutral I have looked at rule U18 and it's potential. Mistakes were made, hidden even, but a third party having the ability to sell the player and take them off of the 'owning' team's books is nowhere near as bad as a third party dictating who should/shouldn't play. Ill-informed bad-losers are as funny as hell. The media love a scrap and that is why they took Sheff Utd's side. The story is getting nowhere near as much coverage because it is simply boring, and the crux of it is that the PL made their decision, all abided by it when West Ham were dead and buried. They started to perform, and the scared teams started flapping. Liverpool's support is nothing short of scandalous. What would the impact of uncertainty do to Yossi Benayoun? Exactly what was intended. Unsettled and open tom offers. Kabba, Howard, and a multitude of other deals are far worse than allowing a third party the ability to remove a team's player at their whim. Grow up, you are a Championship outfit in a

Hang on a minute. WH were fined at a time when it seemed more penal to fine them a massive £5.5m rather than deduct points when WH were apparently doomed anyway. There is also the precedent created by Alan Sugar in 1993 that offences by previous owners would be doubtful under appeal. And now it seems that SU actually committed the same offence in the Steve Kabba case! I am sure it will be claimed as a verbal agreement but where is the justice in that? SU are just as bad as WH's previous management and it is not mentioned that WH's new chairman actually raised the matter with the Prem when he found out what had transpired. Philip Smith I think you have made a bad mistake and I appeal to you to change your verdict? Oh my God I am turning into McC....ahhhhh!

Most people that aren't in the possession of the facts wouldn't comment in such a matter of fact way. What i would say that if Sheffield Utd put as much effort into fighting for survival on the pitch as they hav edone since the season ended they probably would have stayed up . I firmly believe that without the destabilising influence of the 2 Argentinian signings early on the hammers would have amassed more points early on. West Ham showed guts and determination at the tail of the season whilst others adopted a victim mentality . Well done west ham is what I say thats the kind of team we need in the premiership. To wigan and sheffield united dry your eyes and get your own house in order.

I am not a West Ham supporter but all i know is they (West Ham) were the worst team in the league for 3/4 of the season & still managed to finish above Sheff Utd, i think they need to look closer to home on why they were relegated

This article is absolute nonsense. The arbitrationpanel say they might have deducted points...so what? The panel who originally sat and handed West Ham the biggest fine in Premiership history (by a factor of several hundred percent) did not. Pick any three other people at random and they won't all come up with the same punishment for any crime. It doesn't mean anything. The rule breach for which West Ham were punished does not in any way dictate that the breaking thereof results in a points deduction. let he who is without sin cast the first stone, Mr McCabe and Sheffield United. Your deal with Watford over Steve Kabba directly broke rule U18. You too should be punished.

The transfer of both these two players was so illegal that, I think I am right in say both Tevez and Mascherano were legally registered to play in the Premiership, Quote the Premier League and Both players were legally registered to play in Europe, Quote UEFA. So why is it still being bandied about that they weren't, the whole affair is just about 2 sheets of paper that weren't given in. so I honestly think that sheffield should stop wasting money on chasing an endless dream and start prepairing for the premier league to take action on them for breaching the rules themselves but lets be realistic sheffields offence is worse than westhams so I say they should be docked points as well

"No argument"? How about this West Ham got 41 points SU got 38. So you really think west Ham should have been relegated on a technicality (there was never any actual third party influenc). What about SU's own dodgey deal (where there actually was real third party influence). Justice in football eh? This is just another example of very poor lazy journalism.

Why are poor writers like Philip Smith allowed to publish such biased rubbish on public forums and get away with it? Thank you the Spurs fan who quoted the precedent of the Tottenham points deduction that were won back on appeal!! Why hasn't Smith mentioned the cheating by Sheff Utd over the transfer of Kabba, and the cheating of Sheff Utd in fielding a weakened team against Man Utd yet screamed injustices when other teams done the same thing? Whatever happens in the future, no team will recover from being 10 points from safety and then win 7 from 9 including Arsenal and Man Utd away. Warnock was 10 points from safety and blew it. Finally, can anyone show me in the rule book that the offence committed by West Ham should have been dealt with only by deduction of points? i think if you look hard enough it is just one of the options, not the only option. Good riddance to bad rubbish, I say

I'd like to ask the author how many points would he have deducted from West Ham? I imagine he will say 3 along with everyone else who believes there has been an injustice as this is the precise number of points required to send West Ham down. Would he have objected to a 2 point deduction? No. What if Sheffield Utd had been beaten 6-0 by Aston Villa. Would a 4 point deduction been deemed fair as West Ham would have stayed up on goal difference with a 3 point deduction? I thought not. Biased and lacking fundamental facts, like so many of your peers.

When Howard was dropped by everton by Man Utd that was ACTUAL 3rd party influence. There was NO 3rd party influence on West Ham despit a supposed possibility. Also I cannot think of an instance where 3rd party influence could do anything but harm West Ham, can anyone name a way 3rd party influence could help them. I know Jorbachian says to Tevez "play better and score more goals :-)"

What Lazy Journalism! That has been the one consistent thing that has come out of all this! Firstly You stated West Ham should be in the Championship now. Why? even if points were docked there is NO gaurantee that the required amount of points would have not been achieved! Tevez has ALWAYS been eligable to play, everyone seems to ignore this! Yes ok there was a clause that allowed Joorabchin to "pull" his players from West Ham in January but that would give West Ham a DISADVANTAGE!! Ok its a third party rule break but Man Utd did that with Howard altho there was no proof and SHEFFIELD UTD did that with Kabba as annouced on BOTH clubs offical websites. Isnt that 3rd party involvement? and it IS designed to help SHEFFIELD. How can West Ham be regarded as cheats as they would have LOST OUT if Tevez had left! When Kabba wasnt in the Watford line up it was SHEFFIELD that GAINED. time to start looking at facts! Journo have a bad names due to idiots how only see what THEY want!

Who are you to judge that there is no argument? That is dictatorial and irresponsible even if you are just a weblogger. There is plenty of argument. In fact your entire bolg is littered with inaccuracies. Pathetic.

No, not the poor excuse for a writer that wrote the leading article, but the majority of those people that have since responded. There's been more sense and truth written here than the whole of press have managed since it all began.

The original decision not to deduct points from a cheating club was clearly wrong and the appeal judgment has agreed that it was wrong.The Premiership leadership should be ashamed of themselves and one can only hope the High Court will right this terrible wrong.

Im not a Hammers fan, but the premier league have stated that Tevez and mascherano have been registeredsince late august!! That is a FACT so they have always been eligable to play! On top of that where does it say it HAS to be a points deduction? I hear it said that the premier league set a precident by deducting points from middlesboro. well if i remember rightly Middlesboro were deducted points for refusing to play a game!! So how can anyone in a sane mind say that refusing to play a game is the same rule break as 3rd party involvement? The incident involving Alan Sugar IS a precident! Call yourself a Journo! Get back to the local paper where your OPINIONS belong!

Very good article I am glad someone Sheff Utd stood up to the Premier League.As everone knows including the panel that West Ham should have been deducted points .How many usually 3 points for every game an inelligible player plays however most of these cases is usually discovered after the game.Liverpool didn't bring this to light until their deal with West Ham in january. So the points deduction should have been a heavy one. Good luck to Sheff Utd in standing up to the Premier League while alot of others are afraid to. As far as the diversion by a well known West Ham writer it is comical how they tried to deflect attention onto a Kabba deal stating that there was a clause in Kabba's contract not allowing him to play against Sheff Utd when no such clause existed.Kabba was bought to cover for Watford's crisis with injured strikers when they returned he was dropped from the lineup no mystery there.The hammers can try to cover up all they like but they have been found dishonest and deceitful by the panel .Th

"no particular allegiance to either club" eh? Come on Phil, tell us who you do support.

I wish people would at least find out what rule was actually broken without relying on people making things up. Bet the average Sheff fan doesnt even know what rule we broke!

Bill Castell's comment is indicative of the main problem with this case. It's like claiming that someone who has been fined for speeding should be hung for murder.

As an Arsenal fan I hold no candle for either team, but sheffield united are a poor excuse for a football team and belong nowhere near the EPL. I'd rather see the league reduced to 18 or 16 teams than see that p!ss poor excuse for football that they inflict on the public.