<div class="article_body" id="ctl11_rptArticle_ctl00_pnlContent"><h1>Sheffield's chance for redemption</h1><div class="article_body_date" id="ctl11_rptArticle_ctl00_pnlDate"><font size="2">13/05/2009 11:07 AM </font></div><div class="article_author_info" id="ctl11_rptArticle_ctl00_pnlAuthor"><div class="article_author_name" id="ctl11_rptArticle_ctl00_pnlAuthorName"><font size="2">Paul Gough </font></div></div><div class="article_author_info" id="ctl11_rptArticle_ctl00_pnlCompany"><div class="article_author_name" id="ctl11_rptArticle_ctl00_pnlCompanyName"><font size="2">Sportal </font></div></div><!-- --><div class="article_body_content"> <font size="2"><font color="#cc0000">If there is any justice in the sporting world at all then Sheffield United will win this year's Championship play-off final at Wembley</font> against Burnley and return to the English Premier League next season.</font></p> <font size="2">That is not to denigrate Burnley, one of the founding members of the old English football league in 1888, and a team that were once the best in England - league champions back in 1960 - but who have been out of the top flight since 1976.</font></p> <font size="2">Few could begrudge Burnley a trip to Wembley for this year's Championship play-off final - the most cut-throat game on the English football calendar with only the winner promoted to the riches of the world's most watched football competition - after it beat Reading on Tuesday night to set up a meeting with Sheffield United.</font></p> <font size="2">After all Burnley, which has staged a remarkable revival in recent seasons, was almost relegated from the entire football league as recently as 1987 but this season - under promising young manager Owen Coyle - has not only reached the play-off final but also came desperately close to reaching the League Cup Final against Manchester United after only being beaten narrowly by Tottenham in the semi-finals having earlier eliminated EPL giants Arsenal and Chelsea.</font></p> <font size="2">Indeed if Burnley was playing just about any other opposition on May 25 then no doubt it would have the support of most football fans in England and the millions of neutral football fans world-wide.</font></p> <font size="2">But this year's play-off final is not about Burnley, <font color="#cc0000">it's about Sheffield United and righting a terrible injustice from two seasons ago.</font></font></p> <font size="2">The Blades, one of those clubs that regularly yo-yos between the EPL and the Championship, <font color="#cc0000">were unfairly relegated two seasons ago</font> and apart from Burnley fans and perhaps fans of their arch-rivals Sheffield Wednesday, few would begrudge the Blades returning to the EPL.</font></p> <font size="2">Sheffield United went down on the final day of the 2006-07 season after losing to Wigan but would not have found themselves in that situation but for a spectacular late season revival by West Ham.</font></p> <font size="2">And that revival came on the back of an Argentinean signing by the name of Carlos Tevez, who has since moved to Manchester United.</font></p> <font size="2">However West Ham's signing of Tevez was later found to have breached Premier League rules because his contract was owned by a third party - a company called Media Sports Investments.</font></p> <font size="2">This unusual situation reportedly scared away other EPL clubs from signing him and the Premier League later fined the Hammers a record £5.5 million pounds (A$10.94 million) for signing Tevez in such circumstances.</font></p> <font size="2">But considering Tevez - who scored the goal in the 1-0 win over Manchester United which ultimately kept West Ham in the EPL in the last game of the season -<font color="#cc0000"> had almost single-handedly kept the Hammers in the EPL</font>, there were calls for West Ham to be deducted points which would have seen the London club relegated instead of the Blades.</font></p> <font size="2">However because there was no precedent for the offence that West Ham committed, the EPL instead decided to issue the club with a fine.</font></p> <font size="2"><font color="#cc0000">But with public sympathy on their side</font>, the Blades first applied to be reinstated to the EPL but failed in court before, after nearly two years, the Yorkshire club finally reached an out-of-court settlement which saw West Ham have to pay £20 million (or four million pounds a year ($A7.96 million over the next five seasons) as compensation to Sheffield United.</font></p> <font size="2">However even this figure came nowhere near the covering the true cost of relegation for the Blades due to the drop in revenue any clubs receives when it drops out of the EPL and misses out on lucrative television money.</font></p> <font size="2">But now the Blades are just one win away from returning to a competition <font color="#cc0000">they were wrongfully relegated from in the first place</font> and if Sheffield United is successful in the play-off final on May 25 then expect next year's first EPL clash between the Blades and West Ham to be one of the most eagerly awaited matches of next season.</font></p><div class="clearline"><font size="2" /></div></div></div><div><font size="2">Photograph Copyright : Getty Images</font> </div>
The support of millions of neutral fans? Strange - Every football fan in the office wants Burnley to win. Infact, with the possible exception of PNE fans (and maybe Blackpool) for obvious reasons, I reckon the vast majority of fans of Championship clubs want Burnley to win.
'regularly yo-yos between the EPL and the Championship'??? Hardly,relegated twice,promoted once to the Premier League,not what i would call a 'yo-yo' club at all,utter drivel!!
here-aussie site http://sportal.com.au/football-opinion-display/sheffields-chance-for-redemption-70322</p>
Yeah, rest o t'world refers to it as the EPL. Well the yanks, aussies and south africans do anyway. No idea what the Sanema tribe of Venezuela call it. I suppose Barnsley play in the EC.
Fecking blunts, hope they dominate the game, having 98% possession, 42 shots on target all of which hit the post or bar and then in the 8th minute of injury time (the 4th official only signalled for 6) Burnley lob the ball into the blunts penalty area and it hits Morgan on the head and goes in for a goal. The blunt lovely person players chase the ref to remonstrate and Morgan and Blackwell run into each other fracturing their skulls. Fecking tossers.
