FA stick to their decision

IN refusing to make a three point turn yesterday the English FA's appeal board has preserved one of football's most important principles, namely that in all but the most extraordinary circumstances teams are expected to show up for matches.

Middlesbrough's unilateral late cancellation of their fixture at Blackburn would not have been tolerated in a Sunday morning league, let alone the Premiership.

They might not have been able to field a recognisable team at Ewood Park, and nobody has queried their assertion that only 17 players out of a staff of 40 were fit, but the fact remains that they could still have put out a side.

Admittedly it would have been a bizarre mixture. Three of the survivors were goalkeepers, five had no first team experience, and two were first year professionals. But several other Premier League clubs, among then West Ham, Tottenham and Leicester City, have been reduced to picking juniors this season.

To have allowed Middlesbrough's appeal on a rule book technicality would have opened a whole new can of worms. It would have amounted to an admission that clubs had the right to delay fixtures until weakened squads had been brought up to strength. This might not have been Middlesbrough's aim but that is what would have happened when they eventually turn up at Blackburn, new signings and all.

Yesterday's outcome is satisfactory all round. If the argument for docking Middlesbrough three points in the first place was strong the case against giving them back two and a half months later was even stronger. It would have subjected the relegation struggle to a piece of revisionism which would have had the disadvantaged clubs hammering on the door of Lancaster Gate.

Even Middlesbrough need not be too disappointed, given the present surge of form which looks like keeping them in the Premier League without the aid of a leading Queen's Counsel. The law has no place in deciding who goes up or down and it is to be hoped that, in this instance, George Carman QC hangs up his boots.