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MacAnthony: EFL Could Be Open to Lawsuits Over Blues and Wycombe Facing Bolton Youngsters
Sunday, 17th Nov 2019 11:01

Peterborough United chairman Darragh MacAnthony believes the EFL may have opened themselves up to legal action if teams such as Town and Wycombe, who played Bolton Wanderers during the early stages of the season when they had a weakened squad, win promotion from League One by a point ahead of clubs like his own who didn’t.

The Trotters were forced to field very young sides in the opening weeks of the season, during which time the Blues won 5-0 at the University of Bolton Stadium and the Chairboys beat them 2-0 at Adams Park, before their takeover was completed and they were able to significantly strengthen prior to the closure of the transfer window.

“If Wycombe or Ipswich win promotion by a point over teams who didn’t play against Bolton’s youth team it will be wrong,” MacAnthony told the Peterborough Telegraph.

“The EFL have potentially opened themselves up to lawsuits. The Bolton team is now stronger, they will be well coached by a top manager [Keith Hill] and they will be backed by a brilliant fanbase. The league didn’t handle the situation well.”

At the end of last month, Posh manager Darren Ferguson was also critical of the situation, stating “if Ipswich and Wycombe hadn’t both played against Bolton’s youth team we might well have been top of the table”.

Town are currently top on goal difference from Wycombe with a game in hand on the Chairboys with Peterborough fourth, five points behind having played two games more than the Blues and one more than the Buckinghamshire club.

Bolton are still bottom of the table having been deducted 12 points at the beginning of the season but yesterday’s 1-0 victory over the MK Dons, courtesy of a last-gasp Daryl Murphy goal, saw them into positive points.

Wanderers, who now have one point and are 12 from safety, could face further deductions for failing to fulfil a fixture last season and postponing their home game with Doncaster earlier in this campaign.

Yesterday, Town were paired with Peterborough in the second round of the Leasing.com Trophy with the game set to play in the first week of December, probably on the Wednesday.


Photo: Action Images



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ajs83 added 11:05 - Nov 17
Really???
0

spanishblue added 11:05 - Nov 17
Nah nah nah shame ain't it bet you wouldn't have said a word if the boot was on the other one,I'm laughing my socks off
3

kozmik added 11:08 - Nov 17
What a bell-end!
2

ruds added 11:12 - Nov 17
Huge type there Phil - Chairman, first sentence
0

PhilTWTD added 11:16 - Nov 17
ruds

D'oh, amended.
1

CavendishBlue added 11:17 - Nov 17
It's called tough luck fella.

Concentrate on training.....
4

FPL_Tractor added 11:24 - Nov 17
Surely no different than having suspensions, injuries etc for certain games? Or even signings. His team didn't have to face Kane Vincent-Young for instance.
8

hoppy added 11:27 - Nov 17
So, currently, imagine the 3 points we got at Bolton weren't on our tally from not playing that game then... we'd still be 2 points ahead of Peterborough with them having played 3 more games than us... very much a case of eating the same sour grapes that Ferguson had been eating!
6

tractordownsouth added 11:29 - Nov 17
So if they sell Maddison, Toney or Eisa on deadline day in January, do the teams who will have already played them twice by then get to sue as well? Can't keep up.
8

TractorRoyNo1 added 11:29 - Nov 17
And guess who will be first to go to court, anyway doesn't worry me we will be 6pts clear at least
3

dukey44 added 11:52 - Nov 17
How the hell was it our fault? Just tell the spoilt little man where yo go. On the week b4 surely Ipswich weren't going to say sorry Bolton we don't want to play as you only got a youth team... GET REAL!! SOUR GRAPES.. Morons
7

Terry_Nutkins added 11:53 - Nov 17
This is laughable.
3

runningout added 12:13 - Nov 17
It should happen, then we'll have a brilliant can of worms.
1

scumbuster added 12:22 - Nov 17
Its Jockeys like him who want another referendum...t##t
-2

BluedanW added 12:42 - Nov 17
They may have been top if they hadn't only got 1 point from their last 3 games either!
5

BlueArrow added 12:51 - Nov 17
Cry in a minute you're gonna cry in a minute cry in a minute you're gonna cry in a...
2

NoCanariesAllowed added 12:53 - Nov 17
"If Ipswich win promotion by a point over teams who didn't play against Bolton's youth team it will be wrong."

Like if we won promotion by the one point we took from you letting us score a stoppage time equaliser, for example?

Yeah. Sue the league...
3

Kickingblock added 12:58 - Nov 17
Sour grapes indeed. Bolton aren't moaning, they've got their finger out and are getting on with it, they're in + points now and good luck to them.
6

MaySixth added 12:59 - Nov 17
And you wonder why Peterborough and McAnthony have such a tinpot reputation.
7

Len_Brennan added 13:09 - Nov 17
Look, he has a point overall, but the main issue is how Bolton managed to postpone some games from when they would surely have been well beaten until later in the season, when they'll be much better. The EFL have to answer for that one too. It is not an issue of our making, so we shouldn't let anything of what MacAnthony says bother us. Let it play out as it will.
0

RIPbobby added 13:26 - Nov 17
It is a little bit of sour grapes isn't it. When we were in the championship and the relegated clubs from the prem hadn't sold all their top players they would often field much stronger sides in the first month when the transfer window was open as the better players wanted to win a transfer back into the Prem. So that is a similar argument.
2

Scuzzer added 14:02 - Nov 17
Idiot. That is all.
2

Westy added 14:02 - Nov 17
Disgraceful from Peterborough. It shows great disrespect to Ipswich, Wycombe and Bolton. Credit Bolton, they put out a team and fulfilled their obligation. If they had not they may also have been expelled from the league like Bury. Who decides what constitutes a strong team and what doesn't. Are Ipswich going to be prosecuted for putting out a weekend team in the FA Cup ? What has happened was because of circumstances that prevailed at the time that were neither planned or contrived. The Peterborough Chairman seems to assume that Ipswich and Wycombe would not have won the games had they played a stronger Bolton team. In all likelihood the results would have been the same. Is he just testing the water to assess reaction should they be low enough to progress this in court ? Peterborough had the chance to be on more points and us on less by beating us at London Road but they didn't. I hope the EFL make it clear to Peterborough that court action is simply not appropriate here. In fact I think his comments are worthy of disciplinary action against him by bringing the game into disrepute.
6

SamsDad added 14:56 - Nov 17
This is just the funniest story ever reported on here.
He is all over twitter as well calling out Ipswich Wycombe and Bolton fans for daring to disagree with him.

Just a rich bully boy who is used to getting his own way, do we sue. Rochdale for being crap the day they played Peterborough and losing 6-0 or Accrington for being crap 3 days after they turned us over and losing 4-0.

I suppose that was just due to their brilliance!
2

leftie1972 added 15:40 - Nov 17
Yawn!
0


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