SAM Allardyce has slammed football's disciplinary system which has given West Ham an advantage over Wanderers in the Premiership relegation run-in writes Neil Bonnar
The Reebok boss is unhappy Florent Laville is suspended for the last game while Hammers star Joe Cole will escape punishment for alleged offences until after the end of the season.
Laville plays his last game for the Whites in Saturday's visit to Southampton and will watch the final match of the season at home to Middlesbrough from the sidelines.
Allardyce is still smarting about losing the on-loan defender who received two yellow cards for marginal bookable offences in Saturday's stirring draw with Arsenal.
His mood has been made worse by the fact that West Ham will be able to field Cole as the FA will wait until the summer before they investigate alleged offences committed at the end of Wanderers' crucial 1-0 victory over the Hammers seven days earlier.
Cole is alleged to have thrown a punch at Wanderers forward Bernard Mendy and damaged the tunnel awning. His Hammers team-mate Rufus Brevitt was also alleged to have been involved in an "altercation" with a police officer at the end of the game.
The police have submitted a report to the FA who have put it on the back burner.
"The system's a sham," blasted Allardyce. "The FA, not the referees, are responsible for it.
"They have to get more professional and reassess the whole scenario.
"To leave something as serious as what went on at the end of our game with West Ham until the end of the season when we are punished for something so slight in comparison is very poor from a professional point of view."
His hopes that Laville would be let off were dashed when referee Andy D'Urso failed to include any mention of his two bookable offences in his report.
Teams do not have the right to appeal against two yellow cards whereas they can have a straight red card decision looked at by a review panel.
Allardyce believes this anomaly is wrong and blames the League Managers Association and the Professional Footballers Association for it.
"We are guilty," he added. "The LMA and the PFA are guilty for for agreeing that we cannot challenge a sending off for two yellow cards.
"All we can do is hope the referee changes his decision and it should be changed so that two yellow cards can be reviewed like a straight sending off. And it should be done very quickly.
"Or they should bring in the technology that is needed.
"They talk about the time factor with technology but I don't care how long it takes as long as you get the right decision because I have proved that more decisions go against us than for us.
"A 30 second wait is enough to review goals, offsides, fouls, penalties and that is not too long. All I want is a level playing field."
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