Stitch Up

The English Premiership season finished yesterday with some exciting games. The biggest game was probably Sheffield United against Wigan as it was likely that one of these teams would be relegated. It ended with a 2-1 win for Wigan which meant that United got relegated by 1 goal.
However, it's a complete travesty that West Ham United got to stay up at the expense of Sheffield United. Earlier in the season West Ham signed two big name players in Carlos Tevez & Javier Mascherano. Both players are very good and had starred in the last World Cup, eyebrows were certainly raised when they signed as no-one was really sure how West Ham had managed it. As it turned out, they did it illegally as neither player met the registration requirements for the Premiership. It was widely expected that this breach of the rules would result in a points deduction as that was the standard punishment. To make it worse West Ham seemed to deliberately mislead the initial inquiry. However they received a fine of £5.5 million which may sound a lot but staying in the Premiership could be worth over £30 million. The head of the inquiry then said that due to the fact West Ham were in relegation trouble it didn't seem right to deduct them points although it may have been different if they were mid table. That is a shocking statment as their position should have nothing to do with it. Bear in mind that Middlesbrough were deducted 3 points a few years ago for cancelling a fixture due to a sickness bug leaving them with only a handful of players. They were then relegated by 2 points. Surely this and other cases had set a precedent.
Ultimately West Ham were fielding illegal players and Tevez especially helped them avoid relegation. If the Premiership had done their duty and deducted 3 points then West Ham would have been relegated.
West Ham keep saying that it is right the relegation issue was decided on the pitch but this misses the point. They broke the rules and should have been punished accordingly. Ultimately the rule break affected what happened on the pitch as they won points with players who shouldn't have been allowed to play. They also scored the worst goal of the season in which there were 3 reasons not to give it. In the build up a West Ham player handled the ball before a shot was taken. The shot that resulted then hit Tevez on the line so it never crossed the line and Tevez was in an offside position. How this was awarded I do not know.
There is talk that Sheffield United and the other teams who avoided relegation are going to challenge the decision. I really hope they do as at the moment the Premiership have effectively said that it is ok to break the rules as long as you can buy your way out of trouble. There is nothing like looking after the big clubs.