West Hams punishment should have been...

[Grant(aka_eddy)]

As it says on the tin really.

Dont consider their league position at all because that should not have any bearing on the punishment.

edit - apologies for the poor wording of the question.

[sparky]

Relegate the racist feckers

[pablopicasso]

similar fine, and a 15 point deduction....

[Grant(aka_eddy)]

I'm going for an automatic relegation. Within that is a hefty fine, possibly a suspension of the parachute payment too.

It was a very deliberate and open attempt to bypass the rules. No honest mistake, they knew they were doing wrong and tried to get away with it, their guilt being obvious from the start when they refused to release any details.

Quite possibly the change in ownership has saved them. Not that it should mind.

[Trinity-Tom]

The fine should equal the money received for their final league position (pre points deduction) and they should be deducted 10 points. After all, why is going into administration deemed worse than illegally registering and playing 2 players?

In my opinion the 3 point deduction from Boro a few seasons ago which saw them relegated was a much lesser crime!

EDIT - and as Grant says, if this results in relegation, parachute payments should be withdrawn.

[limpid]

Any game in which they fielded an ineligible player should have the score changed to a 3-0 defeat. That is the FIFA rule and I see no reason why it shouldn't be applied in this case.

[Trinity-Tom]

In reality, if the league/FA had any sense they should not have allowed Tevez or Mascherano to play until the outcome of the hearing was known.

[Grant(aka_eddy)]

In reality, if the league/FA had any sense they should not have allowed Tevez or Mascherano to play until the outcome of the hearing was known.

It take a very special level of incompetence to allow nearly a full season to pass before taking action over a transfer that evv-errr-heee-one* could see was dodgy.

* As Dr Cox might have said.

[ml1dch]

Any game in which they fielded an ineligible player should have the score changed to a 3-0 defeat. That is the FIFA rule and I see no reason why it shouldn't be applied in this case.

What about the games that they lost 4-0 in which Tevez played, such as the games against Bolton and Charlton?

They'd be profiting from the ruling :winkold:

[kingphil]

Certainly points deduction - You can bet your bottom dollar if it was a Midlands based club (that would be Villa then), that the FA would not have been so kind

[villafan306]

similar fine, and a 15 point deduction....

Bingo.

[Duffman]

Automatic relegation just to stuff the lot of them.

[damo6]

suprise suprise that they get off the hook-i agree if it was a non london club then they'd have thrown the book at them (they probably prattled on about how many england players they have prduced etc etc)

oh and i bet mr brooking had a few words to say

kind of like the payment irregularites when spurs got off the hook while swindon got dumped on from a great height

[pablopicasso]

the response from a fuming bury fan...

Not really, I'm just extremely angry that your club has got away with cheating. It wasn't an honest mistake that West Ham have made here, its been an on going thing that they hoped no one would pick up on. You've even had the brass cheek to keep on playing one of the players! Now look at our situation.

Manager decides to play a loan player in the cup game replay, resting a key player that was a bit tired. Bury win 3-1, loan player doesn't score or assist in any of the goals but he played most of the game. Next day manager realises that said loan player should not have played. After talking to directors manager and club contact FA to tell them what happened.

It was us that actually brought the whole matter to the FA's attention.

We got kicked out of the FA Cup for owning up, and even had our cup money from the previous round taken from us. We had the strictest of punishments. Your lot have been using this player for months, continued to do so, and had a very leniant sentance imposed on you by what is in all essence the same governing body.

From what I've seen of West Ham fans, you like to think your victims, but when in reality you cheated for months and got off pretty much unscathed. So what if you've been docked £5.5 million, you've still got a chance of staying up, even though its pretty slim. Whats £5.5 million compared to the £30 million you'll get if you manage to stay up by the skin of your teeth? To me, you and everyone else it's chump change in comparison to that big honey pot. You've got nothing to lose from this and everything to gain, whereas a club like Bury, my club who told the FA about their incident got treated like criminals and lost around £200,000 which is peanuts to clubs in this league but is alot of money to clubs in the lower reaches of league football. The arse also fell out of our season as a result. We were pushing for a playoff position around the time this all came to light, now we're hanging on to league survival by four points having not won a game at home since the weekend before our hearing.

A fairer punishment for you would have been similar to what we at Bury had. Prize money from FA Cup taken off you, which Tevez played a part in, expulsion from the next round (starting next season), and points docked from every league game him and the other Argie chap helped you pick up.

Shaker.

[The_Rev]

Any game in which they fielded an ineligible player should have the score changed to a 3-0 defeat. That is the FIFA rule and I see no reason why it shouldn't be applied in this case.

True, which is why the Premier League took the cop out of not charging them with fielding ineligible players. They were done for "acting improperly and withholding vital documentation"

No doubt some kind of plea bargaining was done. Trevor Brooking has a lot of influence in the FA.

[stevenjos]

1-2 mill and 6 points!!!

[ChrisVillan]

Relegation. We all knew in August that this was dodgy as sin, West Ham included. It was cold, calculated cheating.

[Demitri_C]

funniest poll answer in history

[Richard]

Fine and points reduction and both players should be banned from playing for a club in this league for the next five years

Magnus Mekonhead should also have been deported, regardless of whether he was o=in charge or not atthe time and Pardew should be made to serve a prsion sentence of not less than 6 years

[Trinity-Tom]

both players should be banned from playing for a club in this league for the next five years

Magnus Mekonhead should also have been deported, regardless of whether he was o=in charge or not atthe time and Pardew should be made to serve a prsion sentence of not less than 6 years

Based on the latter point I am not sure whether the former point is serious or not.