Cardiff Suspected of Breaking Same Rules

I now realise that some of you will know this already - I seem to remember a couple of brief replies mentioning FAW and Cardiff yesterday afternoon but tbh was so focused on digging out snippets of news from Wembley, I hardly took much notice.

Once I (finally) discovered the article below, I just thought it useful to get a fuller perspective under it's own threadline.

I'm not into Welsh bashing and it's not really about the Welsh side of things - it's about the double dealing FA and exposing it's hypocrisy: it's about different rules for different clubs and the audacity of keeping us at a disadvantage on the tight rope for so many months knowing a key competitor (and possible beneficiary) to be equally if not more culpable.

This is an eleventh hour eye opener for those of you that like me failed to catch on first time round.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited

Same division but different rules for Cardiff City

• Cardiff cannot face same charges as QPR
• Welsh club answerable only to League and FA of Wales

Cardiff City will have no case to answer from the Football Association even if it is proved by the Football League that they have permitted third parties to exercise control over their players. At a time when Queens Park Rangers face a possible points deduction over the Alejandro Faurlín affair, differing regulations apply to the third-placed Welsh club in the same division.

Seven days before FA charges arose against QPR in March, Digger revealed that Cardiff hold arrangements that may point to similar third-party influence over team affairs. Cardiff's director and lawyer, Alan Whiteley, denies that the agreements the club hold with the Cayman Islands-registered Player Finance Fund (PFF) constitute third-party influence. The matter is the subject of an ongoing investigation by the Football League.

The arrangements pre-date the League's adoption of third-party rules at the beginning of this season. So its inquiry relates instead to whether Ray Ranson, the former chairman of Coventry, exercised any influence over Cardiff's affairs through Sport Asset Capital, his investment company, or the apparently connected PFF, as indicated in Cardiff's accounts. This would be illegal under dual-influence rules.
It is believed Ranson, who along with his friend and vice-chairman, Gary Hoffman, quit Coventry in March, denies that either he or any company connected with him has made loans to Cardiff. Complicated?

There is one simple fact, however: even if it were proved that Cardiff players were under the control of the chairman of a rival Championship club – which under FA rules might ordinarily lead to a severe points deduction – there could be no repercussions as there are against QPR. That is because Cardiff are answerable only to the League and to the FA of Wales. An FAW spokesman said on Wednesday: "We have nothing in our statutes to cover third-party ownership of players." Surely it is time for Welsh clubs for them to yield to English rules.

So that's it for now. In the event of a significant points deduction, there's every chance we could be replaced in the prem by a club who appear to have done the same things - only more so - than we are charged with.

Totally and utterly outrageous in anyone's language.

FArce just ain't the word!

 

This must help us surely.

If the FA are aware of the possibility that Cardiff may also be guilty of the same infringement then although they have no authority to charge Cardiff they can hardly hand them our place in the automatic promotion spots. Where's the justice in that.

Nice piece of digging Brixton, I don't remember this from the Guardian

 

Do you think the F.A. are capable of thinking that far ahead?

 

Cardiff get away with whatever they do wrong
Only way to make things fair would be to put them in the L.O.W
Otherwise it will always be the same.
BAASTARDS

 

Either that andrew or the onus is on the FA to insist that all clubs participating in the FL must comply with all appropriate FA (not FAW) rulings in order to ensure the same rules apply to all.

The question for us now is also: knowing the FAW don't have a rule on third party ownership, have Cardiff cheated in the way the FA have accused us of doing and taken full advantage of a unique and unfair freedom?

It has to be acknowledged that we (manager, team and fans) have been at a disadvantage in having to compete for months under the pressure of sanctions when Cardiff had no such constraints on them.

 

Is it me or do things look brighter for us?

Maybe the delay by the FA is purely down to them trying to work out how to communicate their decison without looking even more like a bunch of clowns

 

The 2 teams who r most vocal about a points deduction are the 2 who the rules dont apply too! I say get out or shutup and adhere to rules

 

There will be that element to it Norfolk... who wants to look stupid or incompetent?

But the main reason for the delay at the moment as I understand it, is that the inquiry fell behind on the first day and cannot arrive at a verdict until all the evidence is heard. By all accounts there have been piles to get through.

I think it would have been better for them if they'd been able to announce a decision today tbh (still might happen according to latest reports)... Anytime after the trophy is presented could be even messier. Imagine the press coverage throughout next week... imagine it anyway, especially if it means Cardiff go up in our place!

 

They r worried about an on masse march to wembley after the final whistle tomorrow! They want us all at home b4 they announce the news so trouble is limited and containable

 

Should be interestng either way if Cardiff go up and they have to submit to the PL and FA rules whch would mean no more red cards getting overturned or all allegations of crowd trouble and alike getting swept under the table

 

Is it true welsh teams will be under the FA next season and not the FAW

 

only if they go into the premier league i think. to be in the premier league, i believe you have to be controlled by the FA not the FAW

 

Is that why they keep avoiding promotion??