One rule for the big four and another rule for the rest

All people involved in football had an opinion on Mick McCarthy’s decision to leave out ten first team players when his side played at Manchester United. They lost the game 3-0 but McCarthy seemed to be vindicated when he brought back his rested players four days later and they beat Burnley 2-0.

Rest

McCarthy was pretty sure he wouldn’t get anything at Old Trafford and decided to rest his players so that they would be fresh for the ‘six-pointer’ against a team that he knew they had to beat.

Opinions varied between thinking this was a damn good piece of management and that McCarthy should do whatever he thinks is in the best interest of his club, to being a flagrant disregard for the rules. Some felt that with thousands of fans paying a lot of money to make the trip to Manchester to support the team, McCarthy had shown disrespect to them.

Fine

The Premier League have now considered the case and have hit Wolves with a £25,000 suspended fine.

McCarthy has accepted the ruling and the punishment.

“Everyone else can have an opinion on the ruling. Mine is, I’m absolutely glad it is done and dusted with. Will I change 10 players again? I think you will find it isn’t possible to do it. We’ll have to see if anyone else does it but, come on, it’s been put there as a deterrent. It has set a precedent and I’ve accepted it.”

The Premier League have released a statement.

“The Premier League Board has issued Wolverhampton Wanderers FC with a suspended £25,000 fine after deciding that the team fielded in their league fixture against Manchester United on 15 December 2009 was not full strength and therefore in breach of Rule E20. The board also 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. The board considered submissions from Wolverhampton Wanderers FC and had sympathy for the explanation submitted by the club in relation to similar cases from previous seasons. However, the board ruled that this case could be differentiated from the other matches cited and that disciplinary action was warranted. In coming to this decision the board also wants to put clubs on notice that any future rule breach of this nature would be subject to a disciplinary commission that would have available a full range of sanctions.”

Wolves Chief Executive, Jez Moxey, also accepted the ruling and defended his manager.

“This ruling may now lead to a wider discussion regarding the issue of squad rotation and the Premier League’s rules. We look forward to fully participating in any such debate at future Premier League meetings. One thing that’s never been in question is the integrity of Mick McCarthy. He picked a team that, in his view, was in the best possible position to get a result in that particular game. He made it unselfishly and with the best interests of Wolves in mind.”

Talking to the BBC, Wolves striker Kevin Doyle was less conciliatory.

“I’m surprised anything has come of it, to be honest. They are going to have to end up fining a lot of teams over the next few years, I think, if they are going to go about it that way. Are they going to start fining clubs for changing teams in the FA Cup, the League Cup, when they go from Champions League to the league? Bigger teams change their sides massively every week, so why is that any different for us?”

It seems to me that Kevin Doyle has hit the nail squarely on the head. Does this not smack of one rule for the big four and another rule for the rest?

Strength

If Manchester United field a side consisting off, Kuszczak, Neville, Vidic, Ferdinand, Fabio, Valencia, Anderson, Gibson, Obertan, Owen and Berbatov, in the return game at Wolves in March, will the Premier League fine them? That line up would have ten changes from the one that played in Milan. Surely the strength of the reserve players can’t come into the equation can it? That would be giving the big clubs with all the money and the bigger squads an unfair advantage and the Premier League wouldn’t do that would they?

If the Premier League really are going to enforce this rule from now on no matter which club is involved then that is fine. I suspect that the top clubs might just be OK though.