The Diafra Sakho situation is looking increasingly worrying for the West Ham faithful as FIFA have claimed that they will be potentially taking action against The Irons for a ‘violation of rules’. Sakho came on in the second half in the Cup tie against Bristol City and became a hero after heading in an Andy Carroll cross, setting up The Hammers with a fifth round tie against West Brom.
However, the Senegalese Football Association has had their complaint investigated and it is still an ongoing situation. It is regarding his international call-up to the Africa Cup of Nations, in which Sakho was said to have a back injury that would rule him out for six weeks or so. The complaint is adjudged to have implied that the East London club stopped Sakho flying out to the tournament in Equatorial Guinea.
An independent medical expert concluded that Sakho was not in a good enough state to be playing for his country. Furthermore, despite manager Sam Allardyce and West Ham United protesting their innocence regarding the use of the player, football’s world governing body do state in their rules that players cannot play for their club sides during the time frame in which they should have been let go. The decision to leave Diafra Sakho out of the squad for the previous league match was a sensible move by the club, albeit a cautious one, but it may well have hampered the chances of getting any points out of the game against Liverpool, making the situation an uncomfortable one.
It would be a real shame if sanctions were put in place against us, and our history with players being ineligible is not a pretty one, with Carlos Tevez being a prime example in recent years. This year’s FA Cup has so far promised to be an exciting one for West Ham, with many of the top teams, including Chelsea, Manchester City and Tottenham being knocked out, and thus presenting us with a serious opportunity of winning some silverware. With the tie against West Brom in less than two weeks, it is widely expected that FIFA will not hesitate to act. On the contrary, to be knocked out of the world’s oldest football competition for off-the-field incidents would be hugely upsetting.
