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It's a good article, happy.

NickGull wrote:It's a good article, happy.

Heh, yes. hence my edit

:~D

Sums up things nicely and makes exactly the salient points. Slap down that article in front of the appeal panel and see what they have for themselves.

Matt.

Got to take this one on the chin. Can quite understand why the Hereford chairman lobbied same treatment for both as lowest common denominator would suit him. However, he risks upping to extra fine if appealing owing to the extra 1 to us and we risk upping to 3 for 'same offence' if we appeal. And the suits know that we know that.

Agree with CP, it would have been just a fine if Hereford hadn't done the same bleddy thing, mind.

I really don't see why we shouldn't appeal this, as Happy said on his blog, there as been no real precedent set in the past for a team to lose points overall so why should we be the special case? That point could cost us a play off spot at the end of the season and I really don't understand why we should end up on -1 points for the game and Hereford to end up at square one. Given that our mistake was admitted straight away but Hereford's took a couple weeks to be picked up on.

Rjc70 wrote:Got to take this one on the chin. Can quite understand why the Hereford chairman lobbied same treatment for both as lowest common denominator would suit him. However, he risks upping to extra fine if appealing owing to the extra 1 to us and we risk upping to 3 for 'same offence' if we appeal. And the suits know that we know that.

Agree with CP, it would have been just a fine if Hereford hadn't done the same bleddy thing, mind.

Do you not see that this makes the decision worse?

Matt.

Ok, ok, I know he has a 'party political' angle on this, but has anyone read the totally contradictory comments from the Hereford chairman on the BBC website?

He says "You're either pregnant or you're not, the deadline was 1200 on the 31st." So, his very pragmatic view is that a miss is as good as a mile, you either register a player in time, or you don't. 1201 is a miss and so is the 18th june 2013, once you've missed it, you've missed it.

He then says, "We had our guy registered by 1430, Torquay didn't do theirs 'till 2200, so I thought we had a better case." Make up your mind man, it's either black and white, or it's a sliding scale, you can't have it both ways.

Equally, he is suggesting that they have had three points off and we've only had one and that we've had the same fine, so they have had three times the penalty that we have, what is he smoking?
Firstly, they 'cheated' and won three points, so they are aggregate of 0 points, while we are aggregate of -1 point AND 75% of their fine is suspended, so they are only paying £2,500. So, by a quirk of mathematics, our points deduction is infinitely worse than theirs (literally) and we have a fine 400% as much as theirs.
Given that we admitted our mistake immediately and didn't wait to be found out, I would hope that pleading guilty at the earliest opportunity would hold sway with the panel, but then, it seems that we are being asked to labour along under the guidance and stewardship if idiots.

If Hereford are appealing, when they have been treated precisely as all other clubs (with the odd, lenient exception) have been treated, then I see no reason why we should not appeal our punishment on the grounds that it is manifestly excessive and unjust for two clubs to commit the same offence and be given unequal penalties.

Matt.

To be completely blunt, their chairman seems to be a bit of a cretin. Surely he should be more worried about trying to get their own penalty down, rather than bringing ours up. We should definitely appeal, it's a classic example of one rule for one, one rule for another.

cambgull wrote:To be completely blunt, their chairman seems to be a bit of a cretin. Surely he should be more worried about trying to get their own penalty down, rather than bringing ours up. We should definitely appeal, it's a classic example of one rule for one, one rule for another.

I think the precedent they've set needs appealing, however, in our own case I believe the risk is only worth taking if it is needed to gain a play-off spot and with the timeframe given, we can afford to wait a while.

My only reservation with this, Dave, is that the appeal board see we have taken, say, 26 of the available 28 days to make the appeal and take the view that we appealing tactically, rather than out of a sense of injustice and for this reason alone, deem our appeal frivolous and up the deduction as a consequence.

Do you know what our previous transgression(s) is (are)?

Matt.

ferrarilover wrote:My only reservation with this, Dave, is that the appeal board see we have taken, say, 26 of the available 28 days to make the appeal and take the view that we appealing tactically, rather than out of a sense of injustice and for this reason alone, deem our appeal frivolous and up the deduction as a consequence.

Do you know what our previous transgression(s) is (are)?

Matt.

If a team is given 28 days to appeal, they have every right to use them, you can't be punished for what you have every right to do.

Totally disgusted with the fine and points deduction!!! Man U would have had a points addition and a prize!!!
Yes, I know I'm being irrational but I feel so b**&*()(*&^&&** angry.

my concern with any appeal is the board have made their decision, they're not going to change their mind and admit they are wrong, no matter how strong the appeal. they have had, what, 2+months to come to this decision, so i'm guessing the meeting and what was said by each club yesterday, was totally irrelevant. it was just going through the motions and carrying out the hearing process because they have to.

there is no way the board just turned up yesterday with an open mind. as soon as this all came to light, they all got together, said "shit, this hasn't happened before, it's not in the manual, what are we gonna do ??" and the decision was at very least, pencilled in long before the clubs arrived yesterday.

don't get me wrong, i'd love us to appeal, because i think we've been unfairly treated, but as i said in an earlier post, we really are the proverbial little guys, and in any walk of life, the little guy, only extremely rarely gets what he deserves.

and i'm in agreement with others here, what the hell is the hereford bloke doing ?? i'd be very disappointed with him if i were a hereford supporter. maybe he knew in his own mind that his club would lose the three points (and he should've expected it really), but he's focused too much of his efforts ensuring torquay get punished. he should be grateful they won the match, or he'd be another point closer to relegation right now !!

There is no doubt in my mind that if the club decide to appeal,that appeal will be lodged pretty quickly,what ground's are the club going to appeal on?our guilt is established,the only ground's the club can appeal on ,is they think the punishment is overly harsh.

Quite a few poster's have touched on the precedent set by deducting us a point,as being dangerous and worth appealing and i do not dissargee,however the thing that none of us know,is the official reason as to why they have deducted us this point.

If the official reason is,the point was deducted due to the club being on a "warning"for previous clerical error's ,then i do not think the club has a leg to stand on ,does it?And if the F/L have now decided to that this is a precedent set to deduct all teams one point for fielding an ineligible player,then i am not sure how we are going argue that point either,the argument the club could forward if that is the case,is why were Hereford not deducted 4 points.

For me not worth the risk,i believe that 4 wins out of our last 6 games would be enough for the play-off's,this one point deduction has not changed that,a 3 point deduction would have meant 5 wins for 6 games,and would completely end all slim hopes of automatic promotion,leave well alone,put up,shut up,and lets get on with it,as the play-off's are still in our hands.