Matthew Le God

Their feelings are irrelevant. It is between Saints and the EFL and ruled on by the independent commission. There is no obligation to give Middlesbrough anything.

Flynn Downes was retrospectively red carded vs Swansea. The 3 match ban did not benefit Swansea. Resolution with the wronged party was not a factor in that, nor is it in Spygate.

Or we just spend £5m less than would without the fine on transfers

I didn't say it was precedent. I was answering his question regarding has anyone been kicked out of a competition for off field offences.

If I bite your ear off that is more significant than pulling some hair out with my hands. The former deserves a bigger punishment. Same with sporting advantage, cheating a big sporting advantage warrants a bigger punishment than a small sporting advantage. Expulsion is a big nuclear style punishment if the sporting advantage was minimal.

Swindon in 1990

Because you were asked for clarification as what you said doesn't appear to be true.

I lost count of the ifs, buts and maybes in that article. A purely speculative fluff piece with little to no substance!

Or a knife! "That’s not evidence, this is evidence"

Why would that happen? If we get a points deduction, it won't be a massive one. Even if it was -6 for example, that wouldn't stop an automatic promotion chase, let alone a playoff one when 8th gets you into the playoffs next season. If anything, we'd actually lose more players after a promotion as we'd need better players to have any chance of staying up!

Where? Not on the club's website or X account. The local paper did, but the paper isn't the club.

Exactly!

You don't become as rich as Dragan Solak is if you don't fight for your cause.

That isn't precedent as it is a different governing body. Plus it would be contested as unfair (two wrongs don't make a right) as Saints would have approached the 2nd leg differently if they already knew they were 3-0 down. Plus playing ineligible players is not a precedent for Southampton/Middlesbrough situation, it is a different offence.

Not if the independent commission doesn't consider starting a 'media war' a good thing; if anything, it isn't acting in good faith! The sensible approach is to stay quiet in public and let the process sort itself out behind the scenes.