"Ancient Colin" wrote:I know I am one of the world's great pessimists, but I can't help feeling that, once the play off lineups are set after Sunday, there is no way that the FA will intervene and there is, realistically, no time for any legal action before they start. Can anyone think of a precedent where a successful appeal altered the make up of play-off or promotion?
Realistically, there has been no chance of there being any adjustment to the penalties applied for a number of weeks now.
Even with three or four games to go, changing our total would have caused uproar amongst other playoff chasers, whereas doing anything now or after the weekend would lead to all kinds of complaints from teams who went into games under the impression that one set of results would allow them to acheive the playoffs, only to find that they were not good enough.
Any intervention by the FA needed to have happened a month or more back, at which stage the full extent of the incompetence with which this whole issue has been handled had not come out. Had they known then what we know now, then they might have stepped in, but there is no way they can step in now without causing more uproar.
In short, Lee could now admit that the Hutch issue was known about in August and the points totals for this season would not be changed!!!
The best we can hope for (apart from being promoted despite his efforts) is for Brian Lee i sremoved from his position and someone with an ounce of professionalism put in his place.
I'd like to believe that any points deemed unfairly docked by an FA/independent review could be awarded at the beginning of next season, but I suspect that would never be allowed either.
Basically, Lee's whitewash has succeeded in dragging the whole affair beyond a point of no return leaving us the victims, regardless of any future developments...... sorry!