West Ham escape with £70,000 fine for fielding Diafra Sakho in FA Cup

West Ham United have been cleared to continue their FA Cup campaign at West Bromwich Albion next week after Fifa opted to fine and reprimand the east London club for fielding Diafra Sakho in their fourth-round victory at Bristol City.

Sakho, a 57th-minute substitute, scored the only goal at Ashton Gate last month even though West Ham had declared the striker unavailable to play for Senegal at the Africa Cup of Nations, which is still going on in Equatorial Guinea, because of injury.

Fifa rules state that unless there is prior agreement with a national association players cannot appear for their clubs during the period they should have been released, and Senegal duly took their complaint to world football’s governing body.

Its disciplinary committee then found the club guilty of violating the regulations but chose to fine them £71,000(CHF100,000) and reprimand club and player. The sanctions fall well short of the punishment detailed in Fifa’s rules, which read: “If a club refuses to release a player or neglects to do so, the Fifa players’ status committee shall furthermore request the association to which the club belongs to declare any match(es) in which the player took part to have been lost by the club concerned.”

Bristol City, responding to the decision, said they are disappointed and will be considering their options.

Fifa confirmed in a statement: “The Senegalese FA was informed by West Ham United that Sakho was prevented from playing and travelling by plane due to injury and thus he did not join the Senegal team.

“The Fifa disciplinary committee has found the club and the player to have violated … the regulations in relation to the match played by Sakho on 25 January. The club has been fined 100,000 Swiss francs and issued with a reprimand, while the player has been sanctioned with a reprimand.”

West Ham had argued that the 25-year-old’s Sakho’s back complaint prevented him from flying. Instead, having sought advice from a specialist, he had been driven by limousine to Bristol for the FA Cup tie.

Senegal were eliminated from the tournament in Equatorial Guinea two days after his decisive intervention at Ashton Gate. The club, who omitted the forward for Saturday’s 2-0 Premier League defeat at Liverpool having been made aware of the Fifa investigation, had been so unnerved by the controversy that they had attempted to placate Senegal via an intermediary.

Yet they will now be able to field Sakho in both league and cup for the games ahead. They issued a brief statement on the matter, confirming: “The club and the player have received the decision and will now be focusing their concentration on the game against Manchester United on Sunday.”

There is no indication that the FA has the power to eliminate anyone from the competition based on Fifa’s judgment.