FA Admits They Are A Joke

Back in November, Blackpool manager Ian Holloway admitted that to maintain his team's fitness during a busy week that included three EPL league matches, he would dress an almost completely different team than had played in the previous league match.

Let me break that down. Aside from one field player, the entire starting team for Blackpool changed from a league match earlier in the week against Everton to the following match against Aston Villa.

Now here's the rub. The EPL dictates that teams must list a roster of 25 players prior to the start of the season that are (baring some underage youth player) the only players that can play for that team until the winter break. Blackpool brought in no new players nor circumvented that rule by using an all youth squad. No. They instead used players that they had listed on the 25 man roster.

Blackpool Chairman Roy Oyston went on record with this simple yet succinct statement:

"It is a squad game now. As a Premier League rule we have to nominate 25 players ahead of the season and that is what we have done. If the Premier League think those players aren't good enough to appear on our behalf then maybe they should tell us that as we nominate them and maybe they should pick our team for us, I'm not sure."

To his credit, and mostly for show judging from his past statements, Holloway has stated prior to this fine that should he actually be fined for starting players and nearly winning (they lost 3-2 in the waning minutes to a "full strength" AV squad), then he would resign.



Highly doubtful that he'd resign, but this is a disgrace by the FA even if they are doing it for principle which is exactly what they did.

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