Saints expelled from Play Offs by EFL

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Libby said:
Middlesbrough FC – Club Statement


Middlesbrough FC notes the decision of the Disciplinary Commission not to permit the club to intervene in the proceedings brought by the EFL against Southampton FC.

The club regrets that outcome given we are directly affected by the matters under consideration and hold relevant factual evidence as to the events in question and their competitive impact.

The conduct at issue, namely the observation and recording of our training session ahead of a fixture of such significance, goes to the heart of sporting integrity and fair competition. In these circumstances, the only appropriate response is a sporting sanction which would prevent Southampton FC from participating in the EFL Championship play-off final.

We remain hopeful that the EFL, as regulator, will pursue such a sanction before the Disciplinary Commission in order to protect the integrity of the game, safeguard all member clubs, and deter any attempt in the future to obtain an unfair and unlawful advantage in pursuit of promotion to the Premier League.

The club reserves all its legal rights.
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Libby

I really think that the last 2 statement really salient and I would concur with this. However, I would be interested to see how open and honest Boro have been over the course of the season and whether they have field ineligible players, tapped up their manager / new players, etc, etc. I am sensing that Boro will get no satisfaction from EPL and that Gibson will go legal against both Saints and EPL. I am far from convinced that this case will stand up to scrutiny if things become that serious. I know that Boro will have lost loads of money by not getting to the final yet the legal fees will not come cheap and the evidence just does not seem robust enough to stand up to legal scrutiny.

This message board does make my head spin. Yesterday, I was convinced that Boro would easily win . Today I am much less convinced. The cheating aspect was wrong yet the reality of a nipper with an outdated mobile phone, standing in a public space and potentially no longer in the employ of Saints just seems ridiculous if it is true. I cannot for the life of me imagine that anything would have been captured that was remotely beneficia other than who was or who wasn't training. The internet connection would have been **** too. l It not only looks amateur but seems like someone who was inexperienced and immature would do. There is no way that this kind of "operation" would have been sanctioned by the club. I am convinced the intern offered to do this as a favour whilst in the NE and someone in the coaching staff gave him the nod not really believing that it would happen.

The information presented today does seem to suggest a massive Boro over-reaction and the fact that the ticket sales have happened at Saints and not Boro seems to me that we are not going to be kicked out. i feel must more confident today.

If I am honest, I feel sorry for Hull and have come to a conclusion that should Saints should be thrown out for cheating for this was systematic throughout the season and Boro thrown out for losing, the EPL should give Hull a bye and let them straight into the Premier League. The evidence Boro have garnered makes this look like Johnny English as opposed to anything cynical.

The more extreme stuff suggested yesterday seems to be going nowhere. No other club has made accusations about Saints spying (now rumoured to be 2 clubs and not the 4nr originally predicted) and the talk of getting intel from a dissatisfied ex-employee seems to have died a death. I just think that this has been blown all out of proportion. I would agree totally with Boro is this was a professional operation. In effect, this just seems like you or me popping up there and filming on our mobiles before emailing to Saints. I really do not think it is much worse than that.
 
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SteveO 74 said:
If this was a normal case in a court of law it would probably be thrown out before trial due to biased reporting. Stinks of being hung drawn and quartered before the club even get a chance to defend itself and submit their findings etc.
This is why IF the decision goes against us as in being expelled from the Final, you’d expect the club to hit the EFL with a massive Law suit?
Remember clubs who have cheated in financial fair play, which technically means they were playing players they could not afford, hence, CHEATING.
Everton - 6 points, followed by a further 2 for cheating over 2 seasons, Forest - 4 points, Leicester - 6 points for cheating over 2/3 seasons. This is a few examples.
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As members of the EFL can we sue them? Boro forum suggesting clubs can’t - more from the perspective of them wondering if they could sue the EFL if it didn’t go their way
 
X It is understood the EFL has ‘strong written evidence’ from Middlesbrough to support the accusation that Southampton had an analyst watch at least one other team train this season.

I would hope that our analysts had observed every team that we played against or they would be a waste of time and not doing their job, obviously not in the 72 hour curfew period. Perhaps a failure to analyze us, led to their own downfall, they were unaware that Shea can score from anywhere...
 
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Ian Thumwood said:
Libby

I really think that the last 2 statement really salient and I would concur with this. However, I would be interested to see how open and honest Boro have been over the course of the season and whether they have field ineligible players, tapped up their manager / new players, etc, etc. I am sensing that Boro will get no satisfaction from EPL and that Gibson will go legal against both Saints and EPL. I am far from convinced that this case will stand up to scrutiny if things become that serious. I know that Boro will have lost loads of money by not getting to the final yet the legal fees will not come cheap and the evidence just does not seem robust enough to stand up to legal scrutiny.

This message board does make my head spin. Yesterday, I was convinced that Boro would easily win . Today I am much less convinced. The cheating aspect was wrong yet the reality of a nipper with an outdated mobile phone, standing in a public space and potentially no longer in the employ of Saints just seems ridiculous if it is true. I cannot for the life of me imagine that anything would have been captured that was remotely beneficia other than who was or who wasn't training. The internet connection would have been **** too. l It not only looks amateur but seems like someone who was inexperienced and immature would do. There is no way that this kind of "operation" would have been sanctioned by the club. I am convinced the intern offered to do this as a favour whilst in the NE and someone in the coaching staff gave him the nod not really believing that it would happen.

The information presented today does seem to suggest a massive Boro over-reaction and the fact that the ticket sales have happened at Saints and not Boro seems to me that we are not going to be kicked out. i feel must more confident today.

If I am honest, I feel sorry for Hull and have come to a conclusion that should Saints should be thrown out for cheating for this was systematic throughout the season and Boro thrown out for losing, the EPL should give Hull a bye and let them straight into the Premier League. The evidence Boro have garnered makes this look like Johnny English as opposed to anything cynical.

The more extreme stuff suggested yesterday seems to be going nowhere. No other club has made accusations about Saints spying (now rumoured to be 2 clubs and not the 4nr originally predicted) and the talk of getting intel from a dissatisfied ex-employee seems to have died a death. I just think that this has been blown all out of proportion. I would agree totally with Boro is this was a professional operation. In effect, this just seems like you or me popping up there and filming on our mobiles before emailing to Saints. I really do not think it is much worse than that.
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How many contradictions do you want to put in one post Ian?
 
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Whenever spygate pops up on my facebook page, which seems to be every other post, I make a point of rubbishing the Boro manager for his failure to address their scoring problems in January, for dropping so many points over the last third of the season and for having a squad of players who are clearly unfit for the level of competition that they are in.
I don’t get many responses to be fair, probably because it’s the truth.
 
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San Tejón said:
Good afternoon, boys and girls. Good to see you are still as level headed as always, although I have only looked through about half of the thread.
I watched a Football Martin video with Alfie House and Alfie put some perspective into what expulsion would be equal to, as in
1. Equal to a 10 point deduction, to put us outside the playoff positions.
2. A fine that could potentially be £250 million, by stopping our chance of promotion.
He also cited some legal experts who said that expulsion would be excessive.
My personal opinion is that other than the photographic evidence and the whistleblower, is that they don’t have any other evidence to support their claim, hence trying to bring other clubs into it.
As others have said the only issue with the whistleblower is if there is a paper chain. We would hope that there isn’t but then we would have hoped that we wouldn’t have been so stupid as to do something like this in the first place.
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Welcome back Badger
 
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The B&S Fanclub said:
Do you by any chance, live in the arctic region?
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What does mush mean in Southampton?

Mush - mate, chum

Although now used in other parts of the UK the origins of this Southampton colloquialism has Romany gypsy claims. However, some historians have attributed the friendly term to French ships docking at the port in the Middle Ages, when the word 'Monsieur' was abbreviated to 'Mush'.
 
woolstonian said:
What does mush mean in Southampton?

Mush - mate, chum

Although now used in other parts of the UK the origins of this Southampton colloquialism has Romany gypsy claims. However, some historians have attributed the friendly term to French ships docking at the port in the Middle Ages, when the word 'Monsieur' was abbreviated to 'Mush'.
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Well, considering they were probably bringing the wine in to the vaults in old Soton, perhaps that's why it stuck mush.
 
Not been on here for years. But the way I see it is we have cheated so the punishment should be hard. In my view kicking out of the playoffs is too hard so what should it be. 1. Massive fine. 2. Points deduction when we are next in the championship. 3.Eckert and Spors 2 year ban from English football.
 
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