[Football] Arsenal cheating - should the PL have allowed it.

[GT49er]

So Arsenal have Xhaka suspended, and have sent two youngsters on the fringes of the first team out on loan when they could have delayed that for a week or two - and now they want a match postponed because they've got a weekened squad. Typical Arsenal entitlement. I understood that emergency postponements in the current situation were to cover squads decimated by Covid, not to cover ordinary injury/suspension situations, and foolishly sending players you actually need at the moment out on loan?

So, should the PL have told them to sling their hook? Anybody out there feel the decision can be justified?

Should the PL in the first place have laid down rules - like AFCON have? I'd have thought it perfectly reasonable to say, if you've got 14 players (including a GK, or a GK on an emergency loan) the game goes ahead. Too much to ask?

 

[portslade seagull]

Big club decision

 

[KZNSeagull]

A total farce but unsurprising.

 

[Creaky]

Depends a lot on when the loan contracts were signed.

 

[trueblue]

They fielded an under 23 side on Friday. Seems ludicrous. This is when youngsters should be getting a rare opportunity. Instead, they can wriggle out of it on the basis that players don't have 'appropriate' experience - chicken and egg situation. Strange too how it's the biggest clubs who seem to be making the most fuss. If Albion can structure the squad to fulfil fixtures despite injuries, AFCON and COVID it's ridiculous for the 'big 6' to claim it's beyond them.

 

[Napier]

They should have been told to get on with it and either complete or forfeit the fixture.

 

[GT49er]

Depends a lot on when the loan contracts were signed.

Shouldn't make any difference - they haven't got Covid.

 

[Creaky]

Shouldn't make any difference - they haven't got Covid.

If they were contracted to go out on loan Arsenal can’t simply cancel that agreement and say you can have the players in a couple of weeks.

 

[Jim in the West]

I hope the Premier League know when all these postponed Premier League games are going to be played. I can see a massive issue when (for example) Arsenal whinge incessantly about fixture congestion in February and March.

 

[East Staffs Gull]

Burnley - sell their best striker, then the next day ask for a postponement because they can’t raise a team.

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

Isnt Arsenals fault in the slightest, they did what most clubs would do.

I am at the point where I think unless its a public health risk games should be played.

The PL included AFCON as covid cases it seems.

 

[Doonhamer7]

Burnley - sell their best striker, then the next day ask for a postponement because they can’t raise a team.

Burnley didn’t have an option - Newcastle met his buy out clause.

 

[studio150]

Fail to see why Arsenal were able to include their AFCON players. They knew they would be unavailable and should therefore not have had these included as being unavailable given that they are not injured or suffering from Covid.

 

[portlock seagull]

The rules are a mess, ill thought out and far too ambiguous. No surprise clubs are taking the pee.

It constantly amazes me how policy and regulations are always designed like this, probably deliberately. A simple what if process test would highlight issues yet no one ever seems to do this leading to endless amends that themselves never gonfar enough to become watertight. Tragically it’s usually a disaster that moves things on, and even then…

 

[Jim Van Winkle]

The PL as a spectacle is losing what integrity it had left with the application of this rule.

Plenty of clubs taking the piss: Leicester, Newcastle and now Arsenal

 

[LamieRobertson]

I take it Arsenal will be requesting Thursdays C Cup Sf to be called off

 

[Seagull58]

They have one player out with covid. It's laughable and the EPL shouldn't have entertained it but the genie is out of the bottle.

 

[Guinness Boy]

As soon as the PL came up with numbers as a cause for postponement rather than cause everyone was always going to abuse it.

Should have been play no matter what. Stick the U23s in if you need to. However, there's probably issues there around testing, segregation etc.

What a shit show.

 

[GT49er]

If they were contracted to go out on loan Arsenal can’t simply cancel that agreement and say you can have the players in a couple of weeks.

That doesn't matter. They didn't have Covid, so weren't prevented from playing because of Covid. Which bit of not having Covid do you not understand?

 

[Motogull]

They should be made to pay in their pants.