Ahead of the Champions League final, it’s interesting to read Richard Williams’s article in the Guardian which repeats a point made to UEFA last year, about Milan’s participation in this season’s UEFA Cup.

Last August, I wrote to Lars-Christer Olsson (then Chief Executive of UEFA) asking why a team found guilty of trying to illegally influence referees was allowed to compete in the Champions League. Bizarrely, he admitted UEFA agreed with me but revealed there was little they could do as they did not have the power to over-rule the decision of a national association. In this case the Italian Football Association was happy to enter Milan in the competition, which is why Liverpool will face the Italian side in Athens.

In the article, UEFA’s Head of Communications, William Galliard, confirms this problem has now been addressed, meaning UEFA now have the power to exclude teams from European competition should an offence be deemed serious enough.

I would imagine that they, like I, will be hoping for a Liverpool win on Wednesday so they can avoid the embarrassment of the Champions League being won by a team they didn’t want in the competition in the first place.

The same article mentions the plight of Sheffield United, who have suffered risibly at the hands of another strange decision by the footballing authorities.

The Premierships's decision not to deduct points from West Ham for lying about the contract with a third party company in order to sign Carlos Tevez (the man who single-handedly kept them in the Premiership) meant that the Yorkshire club found themselves relegated to the Championship.

West Ham were fined £5.5million, a punishment their wealthy chairman was happy to accept. Yet, the points deduction many expected was rejected because it was deemed too late in the season for such a punishment to be given (despite the Premiership discovering this in January).

Consequently, Sheffield United are now heading for court.

In his Digger column, Paul Kelso, points out the whole affair gives further credence to the Independent Review of European Football, which called for stronger governing bodies, who would be able to cope with situations like this, rather than see contentious issues end up in court.

The unsatisfactory punishments of both Milan and West Ham demonstrate that wealthier clubs are now capable of riding roughshod over smaller teams in order to succeed, an issue the independent review made clear football’s governing bodies could not afford to do.