My understanding is that Matt Smith was given a 3 match ban. He's cup-tied (having played in an ealier round Leeds v Bradford) and therefore is not eligible for the Doncaster game tomorrow night. The Club programme on Saturday said however that he will be available for Saturday's game against Birmingham. How is that so? The ruling on bans is that it should be for 3 matches that the club play and which the player would be eligible for. Surely that means he isn't availaible until the Bolton game? l hope the Club get it correct since the last thing we need is a points deduction for playing an ineligible player. Of course it may be me that's wrong. Any clarification would be welcome.
Sarah Brooked directly addressed this when it was raised on Twitter: please log in to view this image So it turns out he was eligible for the Doncaster game.
Fair enough, but unless Leeds have another Smith, he played for them in the first round. I don't think the rules concerning cup-tied players have changed, so I can't help but think we dodged a bullet by not bringing him on today, whatever the club are saying. Let's not ask too many questions about it now, just in case it comes back to haunt us.
Well there must be something in it if the club and (seemingly) every sports journalism source thinks he was eligible. Doesn't matter now anyway!
For future reference the FA website has a list of suspended players here: http://www.thefa.com/football-rules-governance/suspensions Presumably this is where journalists check when writing their pre-match copy. It'll be interesting to see if we try to play him against Derby in the next round of the cup.
