Quote ="Charlieboo"No, I don't think they should go down that route either. It would seem a bit pathetic to me. I, personally, don't think it would have made much difference to their season anyway.
I agree, though, that this should never have been allowed to happen. Surely someone should have noticed well before now. I heard that some of the players made their debut in 2004. That's five years ago, so why didn't they pick up on it back then?
And if Bradford did get the points back (although these would have to be awarded by the RFL), then Wigan and Salford would also have to be given their points back, wouldn't they?'"
The "offence" has come about as a result of a tightening of immigration laws that came into effect this year. Between 2004 and 2008, the players were legally working in the UK under the immigration criteria that was in force at the time.
This season a number of Celtic players were held up with visa problems, not arriving in the UK until 48hrs before they played Leeds at Headingley.
I, and nobody else posting on here, knows whether Celtic have or haven't tried to pull the wool over the eyes of UK Border Agency but I'm very surprised that this has come to light after UKBA approved their entry to the UK after a lengthy delay. Celtic could well be in the wrong here but of course, not for the first time, civil servant incompetence shouldn't be ruled out.
As for the points, I would have thought that the proceedure was to expunge a team's record, rather than to reallocate points. That would mean that every team in SL would lose points that they achieved against Celtic.
