Wolves Fined = Can of Worms Opened

It has today been announced that Wolves have been fined £25,000 for fielding a weakened team against Manchester United in December, a ruling that leaves me feeling unsure of which side of the football fence I sit on.

Initially I was outraged that a club fighting for Premiership survival should be picked upon for their decision to rest players, with the intention of having a fresh and fit starting XI for an important upcoming fixture.

A statement from the Premier League helped to clarify my feelings momentarily, before realising that this ruling had opened a massive can of worms.

Some boring Premier League spokesman gave BBC Sport the following enthralling passage and seemed to delight in referencing the exact rule numbers, as if every fan would be able to relate to this.

“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.”

Wolves boss, Mick McCarthy responded as he usually does, in a dull monotone voice, but smiling all the while.

“Everyone else can have an opinion on it [the ruling]. Mine is, I’m absolutely glad it is done and dusted with,” said the Wolves manager, whose side are only one point off the relegation zone.

While this decision may appear to be a small sideshow to the week of European football at the moment, it does set a dangerous precedent and could potentially effect clubs and managers who are fans of squad rotation.

As the rules state, a full strength team must fielded where possible, so does this mean that Arsenal and their army of multi-national children could face a telling off from teacher if they field a weakened team in a cup competition that they actually stand a chance of winning?

Equally, will United or Chelsea be retrospectively fined for the same reason as they didn’t show the utmost good faith to other clubs by fielding a weakened team? That’s rule B13 in case you were wondering.

But more importantly, who is deciding what a weakened team is?

Who is making the decision between a side giving the opportunity to blood youth talent in the first team, or give a run out to a player on the fringes of the starting eleven? And a team that is bending the rules for their own benefit at the expense of others?

Posted By Dan Mobbs - Thursday February 18, 2010.
Tags: , Premier League