Brings nothing but shame upon the authorities. They clearly couldn't give a fuck about fairness but how can they not see how horrifically bad this looks on them and allow it to happen?
Sad thing is, you wouldn't put it past the Premier league to do something similar.
Those players will take a real psychological battering after that too which won't be easily forgotten and could harm their survival hopes.
Reminds me of the time I played Sunday league as a favour for a mate with just 7 men, wouldn't have bothered had I known we couldn't get 11 men together, was in a cup game against opposition several leagues higher no less, we obviously got twatted but worst part was I scored from the halfway line and barely half the team witnessed it.