Holloway threatened to resign if punished over the team he fielded against Villa

Blackpool boss Ian Holloway will fight the £25,000 fine imposed on the club by the Premier League on 27 January.

The Seasiders are to appeal after being penalised for fielding a weakened side at Aston Villa in November.

But an "incensed" Holloway believes he is being punished for a precedent which should not exist because clubs have to name a 25-man squad each season.

"I think it is a total disgrace that I am told who I can pick and when I can pick them," he said.

"If Arsenal changed eight the other month why is that allowed and I am not?"

"I am totally confused as to the rules, who is making them and why I am a football manager and I'm not allowed to manage.

"How can they dare say my lads who did play are not good enough - which is basically what they are saying? I feel totally offended by it."

Premier League rules stipulate that all clubs must select from a 25-man squad.

I don't know which team to pick now Ian Holloway

Holloway believed he had fulfilled this obligation despite making 10 changes to the side that lost 3-2 at Villa Park in the Premier League.

He said at the time that his hand had been forced by the busy league calendar.

But the Premier League is understood to have considered Blackpool's as an extreme case and took Holloway's team selection for the FA Cup third-round defeat at Southampton into consideration.

Holloway, who confirmed that the club would appeal, said: "They don't understand what it is like to do my job, with the lowest budget, and tell you your players are not good enough.

"I honestly think it is rubbish. I don't know which team to pick now.

"All I can do is keep trying to put a team out to win a match and that is what I have done every game this season apart from Southampton [in the FA Cup] when I didn't take some of my better players because I thought they were exhausted.

"I had every right to do that but I can't do it in a league game."

Holloway, who took charge at Blackpool in 2009, had threatened to resign if he was punished for fielding so many changes for the match against Aston Villa.

He went through with his threat once news of the fine came through, but said his offer of resignation was turned down by chairman Karl Oyston.

606: DEBATE If there is just an ounce of common sense in the Premier League then Blackpool will have their fine overturned Rich Stephenson

"He refused it and said he would deal with it and for it not to stop me trying to do what I am trying to do," Holloway said.

"I am glad he hasn't accepted it but I am very confused and bitter. I feel incensed."

Now Holloway is calling for a change in the Premier League rules and says it is a line of inquiry being pursued by the club.

"Hopefully the League Managers' Association are on that," he added.

"They have asked me not to talk about it but I've gone and let them down because I feel so strongly about it.

"My chairman is going to deal with that for me. He doesn't understand why his manager and club can be punished for how I manage the club."

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