They can’t possibly get away with a petty fine. Personally I think one way or another they won’t be playing in the premier league next season.
The problem is that the rules are still fairly vague on this, even though the situation arose a couple of years ago.
I completely agree that she shouldn’t get away with it. If it was up to me I would have thrown them out and sent Boro to the final. But with the rules being as they are, and the final being so soon, then there really isn’t time to properly arbitrate this.
it’s actually a tricky thing to arbitrate given the timescales. They don’t have time for appeals, and so if they throw saints out, and then saints are successful on appeal, then saints would have a fair case to make a claim against the football league for a huge loss of income. But then if they are allowed to get away with it and play in the final, how do you really punish them in such a way that it acts like a deterrent to other clubs in the future?
Starting on -20 points the following season? Well if that’s in the prem then they’ve still made a lot of money making it to the prem. so it’s still not a real deterrent. You would think they would just not bother making a go of it and plan their recruitment for the following year in the championship with all of their extra money.
So do you not let them get promoted? And if so how do you decide who does get promoted?
I don’t really have an answer here I’m just trying to show how backed into a corner the football league are.