Panel confirmed Sheffield United relegation

Despite confirming the relegation of English Sheffield United, the chairman of the appeals panel confirmed that West Ham would have been docked points if he was in charge.

West Ham was severely fined – and not penalised any points – for the botched transfers of Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano. As it turned out, that kept West Ham in the Premier League and sent Sheffield United into the second division.

The original decision said it factored in the time of the season and fan reaction into the decision not to dock West Ham any points, even though it singled out West Ham executive Paul Aldridge for deliberately misleading with a "direct lie."

Still, Sir Phillip Otton's appeals panel did not overturn the decision to deduct points, saying that it could only overturn an "irrational" decision.

"We can see the force of (Sheffield's) attack and we have much sympathy for grievances arising from the decision and the manner it was arrived at," read the arbitration panel's judgment. "We would, for example, have given much more weight to the deliberate deceit by West Ham officials which concealed the existence of the third-party arrangements."

Sheffield United continues to examine legal options. The club said it was "disappointed" that "the tribunal decided not to overturn the disciplinary commission's decision despite concluding that they would, in all probability, have deducted points from West Ham."

Source: euFootball.BIZ © Copyright 2006 - All rights reserved.