Sp ort

SATURDAY AUGUST 1 2020

Fearless Hamilton

in class of his own

Two-times British GP winner Mark

Webber says world champion has

class and car to win tomorrow

PAGE 11

‘Bob would have

loved new format’

Widow of Bob Willis says the

tournament that bears his name

is good move for county game

PAGE 12

Fury at delay

to Wednesday

points penalty

The English Football League was

bracing itself for a possible legal

challenge yesterday after it issued

Sheffield Wednesday with a 12-point

deduction for a serious breach of finan-

cial rules, but allowed the punishment

to be delayed to next season.

Had the deduction been applied to

the Sky Bet Championship standings

after last week’s final matches, it would

have relegated Wednesday to League

One. But the league’s decision to delay

it left Charlton Athletic, who finished

22nd, in the final relegation place,

considering legal action, given that

Wednesday were initially charged by

the EFL last November with breaking

profit and sustainability rules.

That followed The Times’s revelation

in September that Wednesday had

included £38 million profit for the “sale”

of their Hillsborough ground in calcu-

lations that enabled them to meet the

league’s Financial Fair Play rules. They

did so despite Land Registry

documents setting the date of the sale

almost 12 months later.

Sources at Charlton told The Times

last night that they were considering all

options after the release of an EFL

statement confirming that an

independent disciplinary commission

had sanctioned Wednesday for

“breaching the League’s Profitability

and Sustainability Rules for the three-

season reporting period ending with

Season 2017-18”.

“The club was charged in November

2019 and referred to an independent

Disciplinary Commission, which con-

ducted a full hearing at the end of June

2020, before finding the club guilty

based on the fact that the club should

not have included profits from the sale

of Hillsborough Stadium in the club’s

financial statements for the period end-

ing July 2018,” the EFL statement said.

“The club was found not guilty of a

further charge of breaching its duty of

utmost good faith to the EFL by

Continued on page 7

Matt Lawton

Chief Sports Correspondent

New

Order

Arteta and Lampard go head-to-head for

first trophy of their managerial careers

PAGES 2-

FA Cup final

Arsenal v

Chelsea

Today, 5.30pm

TV: BBC One, BT Sport

Radio: talkSPORT