BotleySaint

I totally agree. It should be Hull up automatically. Since we are removed there is nobody for them to play on Saturday.

There is zero chance Tonda Eckert will lead Saints out at Wembley on Saturday. Either cause we won't be reinstated, or because he'll have been sacked. And likely, both.

Love Rickie. He is right.. the club is punished but they should be punishing the staff who perpetrated it. Why punish the fans, players and the whole club.

Honestly WTF from the EFL today. Are they serious?

The bullying angle could explain this. They felt pressured into it. Probably want to keep their job. And we're told its OK, nobody will know etc. This happens in workplaces everywhere.

Has Skacel signed yet?

Club website is changing. Next match has disappeared for me etc.

Which might be a good thing in terms of moving forward. Someone to make the scapegoat. Even though he claims to not have known. Remove him and there is the possibility to claim a fresh start.

As for the squad. Would expect Azaz, Downs, THB, Manning to leave at least. Unlikely we'll get Peretz and Larin back but that would be perfect. This was pretty much the only slim set of circumstances that would result with Baz back as first choice. I really wouldn't be surprised.

Yep. The club needs to put out a statement asap with clear action to show we've cut out the problem from the club. Sackings as approrptiare. Full apology and condemning of the behavior. Probably needs to come from Dragan who hopefully had nothing to do with it and is the only clean source. Doubt hes happy at losing over £100m over this. But at this stage who knows who is guilty and who isn't...

Exactly. Most of the football supporting mates ive spoken to feel Boro shouldn't get a free pass. Hull should simply be promoted. But the EFL just want the game to go ahead for the revenue.

You'd have thought the club would be working overnight on a statement to release first thing today and at least update the club website. Even take the site down and put up a holding statement for now.

Hard to see why anyone would want to stay and play for us now. Players must be livid if they didn't already know.

Oh yes, it was worth it even if we were wrong

Club needs to terminate the contract of all involved. Apologise to the fans and players. But it really depends how high up this goes in the club and who sanctioned it. Can't trust the club right now. And they've made a mockery of our reputation as a club that may never recover.

The statement said we've admitted to the charges. Can't see why we'd appeal except against the level of punishment. I think we'll just have to accept this one. Now its on the club to explain wtf they are going to do, to stop it happening again.

The statement said we've admitted to the charges. Can't see why we'd appeal except against the level of punishment. I think we'll just have to accept this one. Now its on the club to explain wtf they are going to do, to stop it happening again.

Bollocks. Must have been evidence then. Idiots at the club.

Whereas normally they are told yeah, whatever. Tell all our secrets. No problem.

To be honest, if its true we've been doing it all season and breaking the rules. And its true Tonda is behind it and there is clear evidence. Then yes, fair enough, we deserve whatever is due for that. We can't really complain? But up till now there has been nothing solid to go on except the one picture and rumors.

Another day or waiting then ** sigh **

Surely our lawyers will be making the point that this is a minor rule breach and no advantage was gained as per the evidence of the first leg. If we had destroyed them 3 or 4 nil in the first match the argument might hold more weight..

Honestly, any advantage we may have gained from the alleged incident is mythological at this stage and is apparent to anyone who watched the match. This should come down to the simple matter of our timing. We watched their training outside the limited window. We don't even know for how long, probably a few mins at most from which they are claiming we gained advantage enough to beat them? Awarding a 3 nil win is just the same as removing us from the playoffs unless they plan to then reschedule the second leg to be played again.

Heartsbreaking

What is frustrating me: There are so many in the media and beyond who seem to be spouting moral outrage about the spying aspect. As if the spying was the crime. Yet its perfectly OK if its outside the 72 hour window and not a breach of rules. Right? Spying or, one could use the word simply watching other teams train, is normal. The crime was (alledgedly) doing this at the wrong time. I hope the panel deciding on this can separate these out and look at the actual fault. We aren't being put on trial for spying. But for the timing of it. At least that is what i understand.. unless they are saying watching another team train, at any time, is wrong.