Jimmy_D

We’ve not actually said anything publicly other than we’re cooperating fully and we’re doing an internal investigation. I don’t think it’s likely, but I really would laugh if we’ve just kept our powder dry and we have something like the rumour of him actually not being employed by us that gets us off the hook completely.

No chance they’d be letting Saints fans in with Boro fans, it’d be all tickets automatically void and an automatic refund.

And then they’ll take masks off and reveal that they’ve both been Noel Edmonds all along.

There’s absolutely no precedent for changing the outcome of a match for any reason that doesn’t occur during the match in question.

It's quite funny how far out of proportion it's blown up. At the end of the day, after Leeds, the EFL added in a regulation to put in black and white to say 'yes, spying specifically counts as not acting in good faith', hence referring to the good faith rule (while also stating that following the 72 hour rule doesn't mean other actions can't be covered by the good faith rule.) It has exactly the same guidelines (ie. none, with the exact same range of sanctions available.) The idea that it magically means the Leeds case doesn't act as any sort of precedent is silly, mostly brought about by Boro whipping up the press hoping to get a free pass to the final.

Even if spying on other clubs outside the 72 hours does fall under that, there's at least the Leeds case of spying for an entire season, which does act as precedent for that, which was a 200k fine.

Remember it’s not in the EFL’s hands now. They have to prepare for the possibility it has to be moved or changed, but you can’t read anything into potential outcome from their actions at this point.

That’s the same reporter that was claiming high tech equipment was being used to spy.

Indeed, from the EFL’s point of view, they’re selling tickets while one team is facing a charge with a possible outcome of being expelled, so their communication and contingency has to reflect that. The independent panel’s timing of the hearing, however, strongly suggests that expulsion is an unlikely outcome from their point of view now.

Suggests that the independent panel aren’t inclined to think that the time needed to sort things should they kick us out is something that will have to be dealt with.

I've never thought they were bad owners. They've put more money into the club than any other owner we've had, and every criticism of them basically boils down to recruitment not working out in various areas, where there's always a certain amount of luck involved (for any team, see also Spurs, Man Utd, Chelsea, Leicester, etc), but it's never been though any sort of malicious intent that I can see. We certainly know what a bad owner looks like, both for us and elsewhere... (owners that leverage debt onto the club, move to a terrible stadium they don't own, ignore the history of the club, even the club's colours, set absolutely extortionate prices, don't actually exist... etc.) Sports Republic aren't any of that.

Or they just happen to have a PO postcode

It’s all Turkish, he’s the spy. That’s how he’s been so ITK about our unbeaten run. That the reason it’s called the Circle of Trust. It’s all so clear now.

I'd be less annoyed than I still am now by Liverpool's illegal tapping up of VVD.

They have sanctions for financial breach punishments to carry over in either direction now, after Leicester escaped punishment up into the Premier League, but not sure if that applies to all rule breaches. That's likely also complicated by there being no equivalent rule for this in the Prem.

Imagine the Boro fans headloss for the ones fully expecting us to be kicked out if it really all comes back as ‘nothing to see here’

Yes.

GET IN!!!!! ’ave that you bunch of diving cheating no-mark thug ****s!

Ref still awful. Should have enough to finish them off in ET.

Relief to get back into it against this bunch of worthless diving cheating thugs with the ref absolutely awful.

That first half was due at least partly to Boro running on far too much adrenaline for a few different reasons and running themselves into the ground. They were spent after an hour, and it's unlikely they'll have fully recovered for tonight, especially as they don't have the same depth of squad to freshen it up.

The EFL have requested the independent panel expedite it, but they're under no obligation to do so, and they have to take into account Southampton's side, arbitrarily restricting our opportunity to defend ourselves potentially opens them up to all sorts of problems.

Shame we couldn’t land the sucker punch we were threatening to near the end when their mad high press burned them out, but 0-0 isn’t bad with the chances they had first half, more than capable of finishing this off at St Mary’s now.