First Friendly

[Pubey]

I seem to remember the last time we played WH in a friendly they thumped us 5-1 at the Hall and it was pretty friendly between both players and fans. And it was a sell out.

like i mentioned before, i was up in the south upper and to hear a load of west ham "fans" shouting "how's your brother?" to flavs meant that it kicked off big time

 

[A Century United]

Spot on, sir ...

All very well letting Mick answer for you, Xabia, how about answering YB's points yourself? - he makes several very valid points, and I'd be interested in your response to them.

 

[Groyne Strain]

What may nail it is the admission from the FA earlier this week that if the hearing was completed in January or February there would have been a points deduction. The barristers representing Wigan or Sheffield United will make hay with that.

 

[Xàbia Shrimper]

For the benefit of A Century United who brought this to my attention:

Mike, remove your claret and blue glasses and read the judgement.

Nice opening line; very diplomatic.

First, West Ham pleaded guilty to not acting in good faith. That's not making an honest mistake.

Of course they would. I suppose it could be considered as 'damage limitation'. Admit that you realise that you might have been wrong and therefore hope for some sort of leniency.

1. The hamsters pleaded guilty - fair enough it is an established mitigating factor.

See above.

2. New ownership and management - it is the club being charged, not the individuals. I believe there are numerous precedents for clubs being punished for their predecessor's mistakes.

Boston United? Middlesbrough? Rotherham United? Wrexham? Yes, I agree.

3. If the contracts had been disclosed they could have been renegotiated so that they didn't breach the rules - the point is that Wet Sham didn't disclose them when they should have.

A seriously lack of judgement, I admit. But I don't think it was intentional deception.

4. Delay between discovery and breach - again, caused because of the hamster's deceit. To say that we might have deducted points in January, but we can't in April is simply staggering.

No evidence of deceit.

5. Tevez continued to play for the club after discovery of the breach - How is this a mitigating factor? The FA should have stopped him! The reason the FAPL didn't act was because Tevez is a big name, who brings publicity and therefore money.

£5.5m is not a figure to be scoffed at. They may be a Premiership side but they're not exactly flush with cash at the moment, especially after the regeneration of the Boleyn Ground.

6. The players and the fans - WTF! Since when have they been considered before? The judgement even admits this "of course, if the impact upon players and fans was to be the overriding consideration, there may never be a deduction of points" so why here? Because "the fans and players have been against relegation" (Have the players been fighting? They've laid down and died on more than one occasion eg when they got thumped by Charlton!) "Those efforts and loyalty would be to no avail .... were we to deduct points" Absolute rubbish.

Don't let your obvious dislike of West Ham United and their fans get in the way of your reasoning. As Mick said: would you have been so hysterical if it has been someone like Middlesbrough or Reading?

7. It was the club who brought this to the FA's attention - fair enough, but the club shouldn't be credited twice with admitting to it.

Why not? They did.

I'm no expert in public law, but I would seriously question whether these reasons for not deducting points breach the rules of natural justice.

Oh, do come on! Your dislike of all things claret-and-blue is well-known and you're now making this sound more like a hysterical tirade than a genuine case for discussion.

 

[silentshrimper]

Lots of hammers will turn up for this one, unfortunatly in the home stands :(

 

[shrimper dan]

after all that trouble with tevez, he better come down. knowing our luck curbishly will bring down the reserves.

 

[Andy_S]

Away from the subject of West Ham, but staying with the Friendly theme.

If Whelpdale chooses us over Peterborough, we'll also be playing Billericay in a friendly.

 

[Mick]

Away from the subject of West Ham, but staying with the Friendly theme.

If Whelpdale chooses us over Peterborough, we'll also be playing Billericay in a friendly.

I expect we will anyway.

 

[ace]

"So the prospect of a near sell out for a friendly and the cash benefit for our club doesn't come into the equation then?"

.........so I wont be missed then?

 

[Jai]

I'll be there - hope I can park with all those caravans coming down though. I should imagine we'll beat them as Tevez will be gone and quite frankly I have watched under 8s teams with more convincing defences this season.

I will probably be unable to keep my mouth shut if I have to sit next to one of the dribbling simpletons though.

 

[pickledseal]

Would have loved to be at this one, but will be away already. A nice banterful, sell out is good to the club and would have been a good day out. I don't really see the problem with the odd WH fan in our seats if we give our fans the first chance and they don't take them up. Providing they behave naturally!
And I've not got a lot of time for WH, would have liked to see them go down. But a friendly will do. Freddy to get a hattrick. You heard it first here! ;)

 

[shrimper_sam]

Lots of hammers will turn up for this one, unfortunatly in the home stands :(

Hopefully they won't be wearing there colours in the home end, as thats disrespectful. I'm more then sure there will be a few people there who shall point that fact out.

:guns: :flamer:

 

[TrueBlue]

Hopefully they won't be wearing there colours in the home end, as thats disrespectful. I'm more then sure there will be a few people there who shall point that fact out.

:guns: :flamer:

I hope they do I really do hope they come in the home end and ware colours TBTV will be on hand to mock them via the internet and also during the game if I feel like flexing my arms and legs then TB Security services will be on hand to move the hamsters from the ground!

THE END!!

 

[Interpol Shrimper]

FIFA to now investigate if the Spammers should have been docked points!

FIFA story on BBC

However, the Asian guy who's the editor of the BBC Football online content seems to be very pro the Spammers and claims to have seen documentary evidence the 3rd party issue re Tevez was solved quickly around the time of the ruling!

Pro Spammers tripe

 

[Firestorm]

Its the "previous board" defence which gets me.

It doesn't strike me as disimilar to when a club signs a player who has , say, 4 yello cards, he gets booked on his debut and gets banned for a game, would anyone expect the club to say that the club should not have been punished as the bookings were at a previous club .

If the previous board had been dismissed after an internal investigation into the situation before the tribunal made its findings then there are grounds for a reduced sentence as remedial action had already been taken. But the only reason the protagomists were not still there was because they had been bought out. West ham took no action (other than tell the FA what had happened) .

The FA should have dealt with this earlier

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

A seriously lack of judgement, I admit. But I don't think it was intentional deception.

No evidence of deceit.

Eh?

From the judgment:

"because in our finding the club has been responsible for dishonesty and deceit".

 

[Maldon Blues]

Don't know if already mentioned because I can't be bothered to read through the other posts, but we will also be playing friendlies at Canvey Island and Chelmsford City. Dates to be confirmed.

Fulham at home also 'rumoured'.

 

[Napster]

Don't know if already mentioned because I can't be bothered to read through the other posts, but we will also be playing friendlies at Canvey Island and Chelmsford City. Dates to be confirmed.

Fulham at home also 'rumoured'.

Might go to the Chelmsford one - good pubs around there

 

[Maldon Blues]

Presumably you don't mean in the immediate vicinity of the ground!

 

[C C Csiders]

Might go to the Chelmsford one - good pubs around there

Oh yeah The Red Beret - great pub!:eek:

Last year the friendly coincided with the Chelmsford Beer Festival - so that would be good if it did so again.