Middlewordie

I would like to see a detailed video analysis review of the reffing at this world cup. It was great to see them waving on play, but they'd clearly had some direction to not apply the laws of the game fully. Lots of cynical professional fouls - straight yellows - were ignored. Taking people out in the air is a straight red in rugby, bit I saw three let go entirely in the final. I'd also like to see all the blocking stopped. You can shield the ball if you are in playing distance (less than 1.5m away?), otherwise it's obstruction. If you aren't running towards the ball and you run onto someone else's path as they go for the ball, its obstruction. If you run into contact with your arms out at head height, its dangerous play. There is a great documentary to be made by interviewing all the refs from this world cup to find out how and why the refs got it so consistently wrong.

Yes but we admitted all 3....

My Dad hates football but took me and my brother to watch Saints in 1982 because he felt he should do. We won and it was great and I've been SFC ever since. He took us once more when my younger brother was old enough. Even though we lost 4-0 at home to QPR, he still loves Saints too. Now I have my own son and we've been to a few games together, I realise that Saints represents one of very few constants in my life. I wouldn't ever want that to change. Whatever else happens, the experience of going to watch Saints is something I will always want to do, whoever is going with me and regardless of the result (fortunately).

Agreed, rules only work if the governing authorities can apply deterrent responses to a breach. Today's hearing will test if EFL are more able to do that than PL, who seem to have caved to Man City (but not Everton). The rest of the PL clubs take the PL money (and City academy products) and stay quiet (including Saints). EFL teams don't have financial incentive to be quiet, in fact quite the opposite - hence the noise.

No no no. Jo Tessem loves us and he nailed it. "We have rules and we need to follow them. We have been punished hard for not following very simple rules and maybe football needs to set these rules and punish hard to get people to follow them." Saints 100% deserve to be called out on it, even if it's a tough listen.

His position at Saints is untenable - ban or not. He and others have planned, organised and sanctioned activities (we only know about those events so far) to "dope" Saints' data analysis, solely to gain an advantage over other teams. The players all bought into his "preparation" without realising he was cheating. The out turn result, fair or not, is huge. He's let the fans, players and the club down, so it's a tough ask for anyone to trust him - or anyone else knowingly involved in this - again at Saints. The expected ban will make his departure much easier, I just hope Dragan realises he needs new management from the top down too.

Surely Tonda is off to Man City? Systematic rule breaking in the big time!

Tonda, Tonda, Tonda.. you silly boy. EFL could have done this smarter by making us forfeit each game where we broke the rules with a 3-0 loss. Same outcome, no impact on playoff places or relegation, and no one could really challenge that as being an unfair outcome. Are EFL really saying that just for breach of this rule, a team is excluded from promotion chances? That seems unfair enough to challenge, especially as it is an untested rule. Interested to see how far Saints want to take it...

EFL have to be seen to let the tribunal do it's stuff. Whatever they find regarding Saints guilt (which could be not much if the video was deleted - there is no evidence Soutthampton Football club were spying, just a picture of a man with his IPhone out so far...), punishment is unlikely to involve Saints not playing in the Final. As previously posted, it will create a legal storm for all parties. But I think Will Salt has probably fucked his career up.

Oh when the saints were watching you, oh when the saints were watching you, Now we know all about your set pieces because the saints were watching you.

A brilliant day out at Wembley with my son, Saints were great, Man City were average (much better) and the atmosphere was amazing. We didn't win but we looked like we could have. This season has been all the best bits (which also includes some terrible bits) of supporting Saints and I can't remember feeling so positive about my team in years. I'm expecting them to play well, work hard and score goals every game. I'm ambivalent about the PL - nice if we get there, but not a disaster if we don't. Please just keep the club happy, hardworking and something to be proud of, just like yesterday.

If we can get thru on Saturday, who cares...

Me too - I realised i wasnt logged into the website before i joined the queue. As soon as i logged into the sfc website it remebered me and took me straight to the seating map.

Upper Tier is on sale and selling out fast from what I can see. I'm a Member, not ST holder, so only able to buy today - just got through having joined queue at 0931... Two tix bought tho

Looking forward to another birthday trip with my son. His best mate and Dad are Derby fans so hopefully we can keep the winning run going and provide them some constructive feedback on the way home 😀