Loan error ruling rumours are confirmed

Last updated : 11 April 2008 By C. Morris

Sheffield Wednesday have been punished with a fine following an error in the number of loan players named in the squad that faced Stoke city at Hillsborough last month.

Stoke brought the problem to the attention of the league's authorities after the Owls named 6-loan players - Enoch Showunmi, Adam Bolder, Ben Sahar, Franck Songo'o, Graham Kavanagh and Bartosz Slusarski - in their 16-man squad.

League rules state that only five loan players can be named and the Owls have been handed a £2,000 punishment as a result.

Perhaps counting in Wednesday's favour was the fact that only 4 of the players actually took part in the match and so the result was not directly affected by the error and as such there has not been a points deduction relating to the offence.

Leeds United received the same penalty for a similar incident last season.

To date the club has not made a formal statement in response to this matter and as such it is not clear who has been held responsible for this oversight.