Bristol City angered by £100,000 League fine

Bristol City have been ordered to pay £100,000 in fines and compensation for making an illegal approach for Tony Pulis when he was manager of Gillingham.

Half the money is to be paid as compensation to Gillingham and the other half is a Football League fine, of which £25,000 is suspended for two years. The decision was taken after a two-day Football League hearing in December.

The Bristol City chairman Steve Lansdown is unhappy with the decision, which comes at a time when the Second Division club is looking to strengthen their squad for a promotion challenge despite suffering losses of £3m in the last financial year. "We will be considering an appeal," he confirmed. Lansdown is also unhappy that the news was broken by a local newspaper before the League informed City of the verdict.

The League tribunal decided the City were guilty of making an illegal approach for Pulis back in 1999. Pulis was subsequently sacked by Gillingham before joining City, and stayed at Ashton Gate for only six months before quitting to take charge of Portsmouth. He is now manager of Stoke City.

First Division clubs will present their reform proposals, including plans for their own chief executive, to the Football League board later this week, along with a pledge not to abandon their lower league counterparts.

There is growing pressure behind the move for greater commercial and administrative powers for the First Division clubs, who have voted unanimously in favour of such a change. If the clubs do want to institute plans that are effectively changes to the League's articles of association, they would need to ensure a 75 per cent majority at a future meeting of all clubs.

The First Division's three representatives – Sheffield United's Terry Robinson, Ipswich's David Sheepshanks and Millwall's Theo Paphitis – will present their case at Friday's meeting. However, they have been keen to stress that they are not looking to split the Football League, but to strengthen it with their plans.

Robinson declared: "The idea is to drive the First Division forward and to benefit from the profile that the First Division can achieve. We hope that, while doing that, we will boost the Football League as a whole."