The Idiocy of Weakened Squads

I know it's deadline day, but I'm in a small state of mourning after the loss of Fernando, and so I'll cover all of that tomorrow. First, I want to talk about the fact that Blackpool is being fined by the FA for fielding a "weakened" squad. Now, 25k is quite a pretty penny for a team that cannot even afford under-pitch heating, and they did the same thing to Wolves last year. Let's just go over the facts, shall we? Ian Holloway selected a starting lineup, entirely composed of the 25-man squad he selected for the Premier League, but with 9 of the players starting not being first-team regulars. The game was very evenly matched, with Villa winning on a late Collins strike.

We Just Scored on Blackpool's B Team!

Now, look, it was clearly a weakened team (which makes it all the more pathetic that they nearly drew Aston Villa) but what exactly is the crime here? Teams all the time make callous decisions like this. First off, the FA, which controls both cups, regularly watches teams put in B (or C or D) squads in those cups that they frankly don't care much about. How is this allowed then? They are basically saying that these ties don't matter much to them. If they aren't allowed to say that about a Premier League game, why can they say that about the main cups in the country?

Furthermore, where you draw the line between rotation and weakening? Any rotation is clearly a weakening of your best XI, but when is it weakening and when is it resting? There's too much gray area, and Holloway has done a great job at Blackpool so far so who is saying that he is not doing what is in the best interest of the club? It is insipid to fine Blackpool when he simply did what the Big Clubs have always done but never get called out on. Fergie, Wenger and Rafa would all be very poor men if they were fined every time they rotated to a "weakened" team. Just because no one rates Blackpool's bench does not mean they are any less right.