That Time When: Sunderland escaped potentially devastating points deduction

With Everton hit by a Premier League points deduction, we look at the time time Sunderland came dangerously close to a similar fate.

Michael Graham | Nov 17, 2023

That Time When: Sunderland escaped potentially devastating points deduction /

Cast your minds back, if you can, to English football in 1995. If you can’t, try to imagine it. Blackburn Rovers were the Champions of England, the British transfer record was £5million (and almost everyone thought it obscene), Sunderland had never had a French player, Liverpool are breaking the bank to sign Phil Babb, Eric Cantona was kung-fu kicking supporters and neither Sky Sports News or transfer windows even existed.

At least one things was then as it is now… nothing was simple at Sunderland.

Back then, although ‘transfer windows’ didn’t exist, there was a transfer deadline. It was at the end of March – the final Thursday in March if you want to be precise. I suppose that, technically, that means there was a transfer window, just a very long one, but the term ‘transfer window’ was not a thing in English football.

Going into transfer deadline day in 1995, Sunderland were in a pickle too. Mick Buxton’s side were fighting relegation to the third tier and needed some help. Armed with money invested by John Fickling, Bob Murray sanctioned the £600,000 signing of Brett Angel – a striker who failed to impress at Everton but had a proven track record in the lower leagues and, to a lesser extent, the second tier with Southend. That’s right, Southend were a Championship equivalent club back then.

That did not prove to be a good acquisition, but the other transfer deadline signing – the supposedly ‘safe’ one, the loan of a talented young player from Liverpool – was very nearly one of the costliest mistakes in Sunderland history.

There was no doubting Dominic Matteo’s quality. He proved it for many years after his brief Sunderland spell, enjoying a Premier League career with Liverpool, Leeds and Blackburn. Both he and Angel were handed immediate debuts the following night in a 2-0 defeat at Barnsley. It would prove to be Matteo’s only appearance for Sunderland and Mick Buxton’s final one in the dugout.

Now, history records that Peter Reid was appointed, declaring he had ‘seven cup finals to save Sunderland.’ He won three, drew three, kept Sunderland up, gave many of us our best ever years supporting the club and was a pivotal figure in a transformational period in the club’s history.

What the shortened version of the story doesn’t record is how close the club came to a points deduction that could very easily have relegated the club instead.

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The problem was that when Matteo played for the club, he shouldn’t have. The defender had not been registered properly, and therefore should not have been playing for Sunderland at all. An ineligible player had been fielded at Oakwell.

Sunderland chairman Bob Murray was hauled before the Football Association and it wasn’t looking entirely positive. There were examples of points deductions for fielding an ineligible player dating back all the way to 1889. In fact, Sunderland themselves were the second team to ever be punished. In the 1890/91 season, Ned Doig kept goal for Sunderland in a 4-0 win at West Brom before he had completed his seven-day notice at former club Blackburn.

Dominic Matteo - Liverpool — Dominic Matteo / IMAGO

In total, there were ten previous examples of clubs being deducted points for fielding an ineligible player. The most recent was in 1987/88 when Halifax were sanctioned, and that was the third time that decade alone.

Had Sunderland been hit with a points deduction at that time, it could have very easily been a hammerblow to their chances of survival, and everyone knew it. However, on March 31, a day before Reid’s first game against Sheffield United, Murray somehow managed to talk the FA into a small £2,000 fine instead of a points deduction.

"It was not a meeting I’d like to repeat but thankfully we made a strong case and avoided a points deduction,” Murray said later.

It’s hard to know what that ‘strong case’ was, but Matteo’s lack of tangible contribution to the Sunderland points total was probably central to it. He played one game, it was a defeat, and then the error picked up. An honest mistake with no benefit? Perhaps that is how the FA saw it.

Regardless, it’s very easy to see how things could have gone the other way for Sunderland.

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