West Brom boss Tony Pulis demands FA transparency over managerial fines
West Brom boss Tony Pulis has called for transparency from the Football Association over its "extraordinary" fines - and he wants the League Managers' Association to intervene.
This week Jose Mourinho was handed a £50,000 fine and a suspended one-match stadium ban for claiming that officials were "afraid" to award Chelsea penalties after his side were denied a spot-kick during their 3-1 home defeat to Southampton prior to the international break.
The FA said Mourinho's comments "imply bias on the part of a match official" but at his book launch on Thursday the Portuguese coach labelled the sanctions a "disgrace".
Pulis, who has landed himself in trouble with the authorities on numerous occasions during his career, described his counterpart's punishment as "extraordinary" and he would like information from the FA on how they use the funds accrued from such fines.
"The LMA and (chief executive) Richard Bevan and Richard (Scudamore, Premier League chief executive) have to pull all the managers together; we have to have a meeting to find out what's going on," said Pulis, whose team resume Barclays Premier League action against Sunderland at The Hawthorns on Saturday.
"I think £50,000 is an extraordinary amount of money. I've been fined a few times by the FA for stepping out of line, and my argument is, 'Where does that money go? Does it go to charity? Does it go to pay for the hundreds and hundreds of people who will jump on the back of the Euros?'
"When I asked, I didn't get an answer. We talk about transparency; if you're going to take that sort of money off an individual - his money - then let us know where it's going.
"I'd love the FA to be transparent and tell us which bank it's put in and how it's spent. I was told generally it goes into the funds and is spent in different ways."
Pulis has concerns over four key players as he prepares his team for Sunderland's visit to The Hawthorns.
Jonny Evans, James Morrison, Saido Berahino and Salomon Rondon are all doubts, with the quartet each rated a 50-50 chance to be fit for Saturday's return to Barclays Premier League action.
Evans is still struggling with the groin strain he suffered against Crystal Palace prior to the international break while Morrison has an ankle injury and Berahino has picked up a knock in training. Rondon did not arrive back in England until late this week after featuring in Venezuela's two World Cup qualifying games.
Sunderland boss Sam Allardyce will be without suspended duo Jeremain Lens and Sebastian Coates for his first game in charge at West Brom on Saturday.
Midfielder Lens was sent off for two bookable offences and defender Coates collected his fifth caution of the season in the 2-2 Barclays Premier League draw with West Ham before the international break, and both will serve one-match bans.
However, Allardyce is likely to have defenders Younes Kaboul (knee) and Adam Matthews (ankle), and midfielders Yann M'Vila (hamstring) and Ola Toivonen (groin) available.
Allardyce admits it could take three successive wins for Sunderland to start feeling like they can drag themselves out of Barclays Premier League relegation trouble.
The 60-year-old will send the team he inherited from Dick Advocaat out for the first time at West Brom on Saturday, when even a victory would only be the start for a team five points adrift of safety and without a win in their opening eight league games.
Allardyce said: "Every game is enormous for us. We will have to be consistent, we will have to be resilient, we will have to be mentally tough in terms of believing in ourselves to try to get ourselves out of this position because in all honesty, winning three games on the trot is going to be very difficult for us.
"But it would be three games winning on the trot before we would even consider ourselves being able to start to feel a little bit safe.
"Even if we win the game at West Brom, it's a nice start, it's a good start, but we are still in that position."
Source: PAR
