Alejandro Faurlin

Without tension, football lacks something. Luckily for yesterday’s all but settled Championship schedule, QPR still had the spectre of a possible points deduction and the chance of their top spot being replaced with a play-off booby prize looming over them. As it happened, they left clutching what they started with.

It would be devilish to suggest that the FA delayed their decision deliberately to keep the Loftus Road patrons guessing right up until kick-off, but the stage management of their work was Simon Cowell-esque in its timing. A £875,000 fine for breaching two regulations and no points deduction was the crescendo.

An FA statement said: “”In total seven charges were heard in relation to Alejandro Faurlín concerning the existence of an agreement between the club and a third party in respect of the player’s economic rights, and the failure by the club to notify the FA of that agreement before the player was registered to play in England in July 2009.

“The club were found to have been in breach of FA Rule E3, and to have also been in breach of FA Football Agents Regulations, A1. The commission found that in respect of the breach of FA Rule E3 the club be fined £800,000. In respect of the breach of FA Football Agents Regulations, A1, the club be fined a further £75,000. In addition the club was warned as to its future conduct with particular regard as to regulatory compliance.”

The relief was palpable. A humdrum 2-1 defeat at home to Leeds meant less than nothing, as a routine pitch invasion and trophy ceremony completed the formalities.

Fans of their Championship competitors may feel that being robbed of fluent and straightforward celebrations is the least that QPR deserve. Precedents have been set for the type of rules they have broken  – West Ham in 2007 with Carlos Tevez and Luton Town in 2008. All the talk beforehand seemed to suggest that the West London club would be lucky to avoid Luton’s punishment of a 10 point fine.

But matching that charge would have been brutal. In these situations there is always a question raised: who is being punished – the owners or the fans? There’s no doubt that the club’s supporters have done nothing to create this scenario, and deserve their schoolboy summer in the Premier League. The players and manager, equally, have earnt their place at the top table.

So the FA have probably got this one about right. Although the waters can get murky, football more or less happens on the pitch. Player dealings and contract negotiations can have an influence, of course, but when the whistle blows it is 11 men against 11 and QPR have been the best team in the Championship on those terms this season. The owners and management have got the team in this situation – hitting them in the pocket is the right way to go.