The Premier League are investigating whether West Ham and West Bromwich Albion breached regulations when agreeing Robert Snodgrass would not play in tonight’s match at London Stadium.
West Brom manager Sam Allardyce revealed beforehand live on BT Sport that Snodgrass was unavailable for the game due to “an agreement between the clubs” as part of the deal to sign the former Hammer on January 8th.
Such an agreement — whether written or informal — might constitute a breach of Premier League regulation I 7, which states that “No Club shall enter into a contract which enables any other party to that contract to acquire the ability materially to influence its policies or the performance of its teams in League Matches, any matches in the Professional Development Phase Games Programme or the Professional Development Leagues (as those terms are defined in the Youth Development Rules) or in any of the competitions set out in Rule L.9.”
Robert Snodgrass travelled to the London Stadium and was seen watching from the stands wearing a mask.
It appears Big Sam has well and truly put in his big foot in it because obviously if he had stayed silent no-one would be any the wiser.
Both clubs could face a fine if found guilty so quite why he decided to invite a problems for his club and ours only he can answer..
After the game, Sam Allardyce was asked about the Premier League investigation by a BT Sport reporter and replied: “If they contact us privately we will tell them, it is up to the Premier League to tell us to know what and if we have done anything wrong and I’ll answer whatever questions they decide to ask me, It’s not my big worry at the moment though whatever the Premier League do and don’t think!”
Shush. I wouldn’t have known there was anything wrong with it if I hadn’t read this article.
Unfortunately, Sam Allardyce told the world before and after the game
Big sam big mouth
Bit why did we do this ? Did know one know about this rule ?
Same old west ham
As a supporter of this club, when things are going well, I always expect a Crash, Bang and Wallop out of the blue….and here it is!
No direct quotes from the PL ?
Good effort on getting hits though….
Thank you. Maybe they will ignore their own rules eh?
This is substantially no different to when a loan player is prevented from playing against his owner team is it?
That is also a contract or lease so what is the difference?
The Rule Book!
This will be interesting. Manchester United did this with Everton in 2007, not allowing Tim Howard to play against them via a similar agreement. The original loan became a permanent transfer in February of that year and the match tok place in April! After being 2-0 up Man U went on to win 4-2 after a serious gaolkeeping error allowed them back into the game. If anything comes of this, we should organize a mass spamming of the FA to remind the buggers.
I think it was gross stupidity by us to invite the situation when we could have held onto him for a week but saying that BFS should be smart enough to just say he is resting him.
Clearly not a breach of the regulation you quote. No case to answer. Even if it goes to VAR. Sheffield United can stop getting too excited that they have a new case for compensation. Sam Allardyce was one of our better managers over the last 20 years. Can’t understand why you dislike him so much, Sean.
COYI
Allardyce! What an arrogant and ignorant fool.
BFS knows what he is doing he is shifting the blame for when he gets relegated.
As for the selling of the player, I was surprised he left he was a great player for us at a time we needed a ‘worker.’ But really, if West Brom own him they can play him whenever they want, he’s not on loan, so he can play.
All BFS has done is shaft both us and his new employer by suggesting this agreement is in place I’m sure if it had been a win for West Brom then he would have had another explanation for his comments.
Panto season has just finished….Sorry Sam oh yes it has!!
This is so typical of West Ham and of the owners. Like when we let that player many years ago play in a League Cup game against Villa when he’d already played in it for a club he was loaned to. Does no-one at West Ham ever check on the rules? We had to replay it and lost if I remember.
Why on earth would they even think about such an arrangement?
I posted earlier that it would have made sense to delay the transfer till this week – no transfer fee, make that the agreement, job done. Act in all parties best interests. Can’t believe we did it the other way round and invited trouble.