Sheaf Saint

No, it's not. It would still be a breach of rule 3.4 regarding acting in good faith to other teams.

So unlike you to take such a firm position on something trousers.

Yeah wasn't there some talk recently (forget from who) about other Champ clubs being well aware of us doing it and running dummy drills / formations to mitigate it? If that's the case, I would be astounded if it really was just the three occasions.

In which case perhaps Soggy was wrong (imagine!) and it actually was 'crime of the century'.

Tonda admitted in his statement to the EFL that he authorised the use of spying on numerous occasions. What more proof do you need?

True. But if they were capable of being so complacent about the outcome of the hearing, what makes you think their confidence in Tonda escaping a FA ban has any stronger basis?

The same people that fully expected to get away with just a fine from the EFL?

Wrong I'm afraid. The fact that the rule doesn't exist outside the EFL is irrelevant. The fact is that a rule was broken, systematically and repeatedly, and untruths were told in trying to cover it up initially. The EFL impose the sanctions on clubs found guilty of rule-breaking, but the conduct of individuals is the responsibility of the FA as the overall parent body. Anyone who thinks it won't happen is as much in denial as most of us were about the possibility of being expelled from the playoffs.

All good points Turks. Dragan has given his full backing, so as long as everyone else inside the club is on board with it then let's bring it on. But... Tonda clearly still has questions to answer about the way he conducted himself throughout all of this. The report released yesterday by the EFL doesn't show him in a particularly good light, and the FA investigation might uncover more that hasn't yet been made public. So while Dragan's full support is welcome, I really hope he isn't putting all his eggs in one basket and that he and Spors have a decent backup plan in the likely event of Tonda getting a lengthy ban.

It's not the club that the FA would punish, it's the individual.

He admitted in his statement to the commission that he authorised the missions. And his claim that he didn't know it was against the rules is heavily contradicted by the statements from the analysts. Forget Bielsa. The benchmark is what happened with the Canadian women's team coaches.

In which case they're fucking idiots, because they didn't expect a severe sanction from the EFL either. First rule in business (and life in general) - never, ever make the same stupid mistake twice.

Just read through the EFL decision statement and it paints him in a very bad light. No evidence of the alleged bullying, but a total disregard for the rules which he then tried to play down by acting dumb and pretending he didn't know it was illegal and didn't get any useful information anyway. The club statement might suggest we want him to stick around, but I would seriously hope they are putting a contingency plan in place for when he inevitably gets banned by the FA.

No, he doesn't. He admitted he authorised the missions and then played dumb and pretended he didn't know it was against the rules. I can't see any way he can escape a ban by the FA in light of all this.