James

Having taken some time to reflect, the severity of the sanction imposed, given what happened to Leeds (I know, different times, no rule…) and what has happened and will inevitably happen to Chelsea and Man City, is difficult to fully comprehend. I blame the Club and the coaching staff, it’s impossible not to, but most of my anger is at the fact that the EFL and the Independent Commission have chosen to throw the book at us, likely under the influence of Middlesbrough Football Club, given the interconnectivity between the senior personnel there and the top of the EFL, when the footballing authorities gone easier on other clubs for, in my view at least, more serious and more prolonged offences. There really is one rule for some, another for others. We need a reset - if only to restore the damage that the social media pile on, again instigated by influenced journalists from the North East - and the Club need our backing more than ever. We must ensure that this doesn’t destroy the short term future of this Club. I don’t envy those in decision making capacities this summer.

West Ham will get Parker.

Hope him and everyone else on his coaching team is gone at 9am. Has embarrassed us all.

Given Dragan’s history of litigating, I doubt he’d be bluffing…

Of course it doesn’t. But he has form for getting teams that are bang to rights out of jams (City). If anyone can get something out of this for us, it’s him.

Who knows but you don’t get to be as famous as he is in legal circles if you lose a lot of cases. City brought him in for a reason…

If there is no reversal tonight (and I think unlikely, best case we get the 4 points back), I think it’s virtually certain there will be follow up litigation.

I’m trying to get Pannick printed on the back of my shirt but the Shop told me they’ve run out of the letter n…

Yep. He’s not the kind of guy that usually takes cases he thinks he’s going to lose. Whether the “win” is reinstatement though, I think that’s doubtful. My guess is we won’t have heard the last of this no matter what happens tonight.

See the last sentence of my first post.

Exactly. The timing of who is selling tickets to who is literally irrelevant at this point.

Lord Pannick is the best of the best. He managed to get City a reprieve from their European ban, if it’s possible then we have the right man for the job. Those saying why not do it earlier, it’s clear Parsons thought he’d effectively pled this down to a misdemeanour.

I’m in the same place. I don’t think we will get reinstated. The punishment is well over the top but the damage is done now. What happens next, who knows? But I hope we raise hell.

More and more stories about how harsh the sanction is and the possibility of more legal proceedings as a result. Don’t necessarily think it’ll make a difference for us tonight but the EFL have screwed this up royally. If Boro win on Saturday they will have hell to pay on multiple fronts.

Exactly. Just because the appeals process to this disciplinary hearing will close tonight doesn’t mean there aren’t other avenues available to the Club. Not saying they will be successful and they won’t reinstate us to the playoffs but they are available.

If by “us” you mean Parsons then yes, yes he has.

I don’t really know what folks are expecting the Club to say at this point. They have accepted responsibility for the offence and are pointing out that it’s potentially the most severe punishment handed out to an English club (which it is). There’s really no more they can do or say at this point. The appeal will be heard, I doubt anything will change now but the statement is about as good as it gets in the circumstances.

That isn’t how the law works when it comes to assessing damages - you don’t just assume we’d have lost and therefore have lost nothing. Conversely, the loss isn’t £200m either because, as you say, there is a chance Hull win. At the time of the appeal the value of our expected loss is somewhere between 0 and £100m.

Definitely.

Well not really - if you’ve already accepted the charges, all you can do is appeal the severity of the penalty being imposed which, as the statement points out, is completely disproportionate.

This is almost certainly what happened.

I think that’s about as good a statement as they could have put out to be honest. Straight to the point.

This is precisely the frustration but there’s no point in dwelling on it. Football is corrupt and there is always going to be one rule for the big boys and another for smaller clubs that can be made an example of more easily.

Exactly, we don’t need a “good guy”. We need a Gibson, no way he’d have allowed this to happen if the shoe was on the other foot.

100% but this is an SR led club, incompetence.