With the greatest goodwill I can muster up for Derby County FC and the their stadium complex being uprooted and being plonked down in Siberia or was it Antarctica even a one-eyed ostrich would be able to see what is going on here. Enough photos from outside the ground and Sky's interview with Neil Warnock inside it clearly show the situation and you do not need to be an Hercule Poirot on this one.

Derby Co need to be punished and punished severely. There have been precedents over the unilatetal calling of game (Middlesbrough). In these days of huge transfer fees, even in the Championship, gone are the days of a slapped wrist and a suspended £5,000 fine. This sort of thing will only be stopped by a punishment that is commensurate with the influx of money into the game.

So what is the punishment? Not for one moment do I think the EFL will oblige but the severity of this shoddy postponement will only be shown by:

* a fine of £500,000
* a 9 pts deduction
* Huddeleston's suspension still to be effective in the rearranged game
* reimbursement of all transport and ticket costs of City fans.

It would seem that either Tuesday April 17th or 24th will be the day of the rearranged game.

StT.
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