S-Clarke

I think the context is somewhat different, as I believe Leeds were caught in December - the game in question when they beat Derby, they were way down the league at that point. It wasn't a decider per-say. They did admit to have been doing it all season though up to that point, to all clubs, so in that context it's certainly worse form than ourselves. But the timing and context of the game makes it look worse for us, because it's more of a 'final' and there aren't another 20 games to makeup the wrong doings etc etc. I don't think what we did impacted the result though, so I think the argument is flimsy at best that it cost them promotion - but they'll almost certainly play that angle.

Nope, just all guess work. Boro fans opinion is that he's a 'nonce' and needs to be banned from football, as they believe he'll be a risk to Children if not cheating. They are a bunch of utter weirdos.

I'd suggest that's probably on the worst-case extreme of what'll happen. I think it'll be a fine, and then Boro will take the EFL and ourselves through the courts to try and get more dosh for them. That's all Gibson wants, he's positioning himself for a legal battle to secure the most compensation - he's trying to grab the PL money without being good enough to get there himself.

It was unsporting and poor form, absolutley with you on that. But in the cold light and day the data collected is no different than what goes on anyway, just less stupid ways. I'm not denying what we did was foolish and makes no sense, because the advantage we'd gain is just not even worth trying for - that's why any punishment should be proportionate to that. We haven't killed anyone, we haven't paid anyone off, we haven't bribed a referee or fielded players we bought illegally to win the game. We've just been a bit dumb and gone about scouting in an unsporting way.

What about all the goalies who write down the pen takers, the potential order and what side they hit? It's literally written on a lot of their water bottles. If that is what constitutes spying and gaining an unfair advantage, then they should sack off lots of GK's and rule lots of finals null and void. Jordan Pickford did that with England in a recent tournament, I guess Boro would have been in full agreement for England to have been eliminated on the spot?

Exactly, I'd say our approach is how you act in these situations. Who knows, there may be other clubs who have brought a case to the table too - but you don't broadcast shit like this unless you want to get an advantage from it, and we all know that's all it's about. They want a free run at the PL and we've stupidly given them an angle to try and get that, albeit a very slim angle it has to be said.

Let's just lay out the two potential cases here. 1) We have been found to have foolishly spied once, that's the only evidence. No other clubs impacted and thus the only punishment in that sense is a fine. They couldn't issue sporting sanctions for a one off event. 2) We have been found to have foolishly done it all season, and there's tons of evidence to back it up. This does in fact bring the game into disrepute in a bigger level, and you then certainly have the power to impose sporting sanctions as the severity and potential advantages you could have gained is much higher. But digging into point 2 a little bit more is where it gets tricky in this timespan. If that were the case, lots of clubs would have legal cases and stacks of evidence against us. Derby and Wrexham would be up in the arms and demanding to go into the playoffs in place of us. We'd obviously appeal, everything would be delayed, no one would know what league they'll be in and the entire competition is a mess and can't start next year. They wouldn't allow that to happen. Personally the chances of 2 are very slim, because like I said we'd have had more about other clubs by now. This seems to be a Middlesbrough solo effort pinned solely on point 1, which they blew out to try and gain an advantage - which they couldn't take. So at this point Sporting Sanctions shouldn't really be in the equation for a one off evidenced event, which has been proven to have had no impact on the result. A fine and a slap on the wrist is the worst case IMO.

He's having a laugh if he gets that sort of compensation from us. When West Ham were found to have illegally registered Tevez and Mascarano back in 07-08 (i think), they stayed up ahead of Sheffield United and Tevez scored the winning goal in the last game which ultimately kept them up iirc. WHU were ordered to settle £20m compensation to Sheffield United. Compare that to a young lad with an IPhone taking pictures from behind a tree. They are totally opposite in extreme levels, so thinking a punishment should be equal is crazy. And by the way, WHU didn't get 'expelled' or docked points for that either.

That 'decide the way we want' angle is a clear posturing towards them laying the groundwork for Legal Action when they don't get the result they want. They're not being very sportsmanlike here, because we beat them over the 2 legs because we were better - and because they couldn't finish their dinner. We gave them more chances to score than we have any team all season, it's not our fault they couldn't put the ball away. They tired, we took control, and they forgot how to defend a cross shot. They are the worst kind of losers.

They've got form for this sort of snivelling though - remember their outcry over Rob Edwards leaving? Rob Edwards, rightly or wrongly, wanted a crack at his former club in the PL (although not for long). They created such an outcry, the Boro fans hate him, the club made a crying statement about it as well iirc.

The fact they thought it was a legitimate ask to be on the panel is just crazy. Do they not understand how this all works? The EFL are always the broker in these situations, same as Fifa, same as the FA, same as the EPL. If a club lodges a complaint with the respective authority, the authority then becomes the broker between the 2 parties. It gathers evidence from both sides, and the alleged will have a chance to fight the allegations. Boro aren't fighting the allegations, we are. Having clubs going to 'war' against each other in these ways would not create the fair and INDEPENDANT nature of this hearing. What planet are these guys living on? What the fuck is all this. This is basically shaping up to be a Steve Gibson sue everyone special, I can smell it a mile away.

It's just fake outrage really. I still find it all quite funny, rather bemusingly funny really, and in a year or two the only left over piece of this charade will be Boro's new 'fake' rivalry with us.

Another interesting angle here is that the EPL don't have this regulation, so this is purely an EFL regulation at this point and not wider global football or FIFA Level sanctions - so it's completely small fry, which is why expulsion and sporting sanctions just don't add up here. It will be a fine, maybe a bigger fine as a suspended fine, and potentially a sacking of a member of staff. Do teams spy on each other in the PL? Maybe, there are probably inside men sharing bits. We've had loads of team sheets being leaked in the media, many examples of that.

Boro went begging to be part of the parties around the table during the 'INDEPENENT' hearing (note Independent). And were then obviously denied. Why they even had the gumption to ask to be included is more evidence to me that they are absolutely desperate. Oh, and tickets are on sale.

That's all they can say though, as the EFL have no idea themselves how this will pan out. Their job is to gather the evidence, present it to the independent panel and then allow them to reach a conclusion that the EFL then applies. So of course the EFL are going to say that, because by regulation any possibility is possible, not that they're likley.

'Disgruntled former employee trying to throw their former employers under the bus' shocker...Happens all the time, tribunals etc, unfair dismissal. I can't see how a former employee providing evidence is strong enough, because you don't know his motivations for doing so and we'd just claim he was a disgruntled employee, and he's fabricating it.

I still remain convinced that all the media rubbish was a build up to try to gain an advantage, both in advance of their home and away legs. Ironically they could have actually gained more of an advantage with that approach than we did with our alleged iPhone behind a tree. So equally, I'd say they've been quite unsportsmanlike too. It's all quietened down a little from their side now I've found, no more leaks about the incredible surveillance equipment or the route he took to change coming into the press. They can't gain a sporting advantage themselves now, so what we are seeing now are the final throws of the official process that Middlesbrough started with the EFL.

EFL have just followed process from all I can see. Boro have just fed all their local journos, who have then fed the national journos. None of that is the EFL playing along with it. The EFL also don't come to the decision, they have no input or influence over it, which is why the independent advisors are pulled together to come to the conclusion. The only involvement the EFL will have had up to this point is to receive the complaint, pull together evidence from both sides, and then arrange an independent panel who will review what the EFL have received from both clubs and form a judgement.

It would be messy, because if they did that it would be because they'd have evidence this is 'systemic' - which would then call into question Wrexham, Derby etc who just missed out on the playoffs. They'd then call that one of those replaces us and get a shot to go to Wembley. There is no easy route to 'expelling' us, because it will just open an entire can of worms which would ripple the league, delay and completion and put the start of the season and competition in jeopardy. We will be allowed to compete, we will be allowed to get promoted, but I'm fairly sure they will slap us with a fine. The worst case is probably a fine and a suspended points deduction.

There is no way they can build any solid evidence, and a response from us, by Tuesday on point 2. It's impossible. Trying to whip up feedback from all other Championship teams is a desperate attempt by Middlesbrough, because they have now realised that in isolation what we did at Boro was stupid, yes, but it really isn't the crime of the century and it won't provide them the free passage to the final they so clearly want. We've had so many variations of this story. 1) Someone was hiding in the bushes 2) They'd broken into the Middlesborough training ground to film sessions. 3) Someone was in a field with high tech surveillance and spying equipment, microphones to pic up audio from meters away. 4) The actual picture, showing a kid behind a tree with an IPhone on a public right of way and nothing else. So why did they make up 1, 2 and 3? It's because they're desperate, they wanted to use this to create an advantage and they have used all of their tools and contacts to rile up any media contacts they have to pump the journo's with it. If Boro are shown up to have blown this up and tried to 'exaggerate things', including digging up personal info, dragging someone's career through the mud and the clubs name through the gutter to make it seem worse than it was, then I hope both the Intern and ourselves sue the fuckers to the hilt for deformation and reputational damages.

I would say the penalty against Matsuki would have been given if it was VAR - almost certainly. We got lucky with that one. I thought the pull back on Stewart in front of our goal was blatant, and equally it was a really clumsy tackle on Larin in the penalty box. Larin had got ahead of him, their player missed the ball and just cut over him. Maybe it would have been 'soft', but it would have probably been given with VAR. The ref had a bad game in that regard, he missed a few big calls for either side. I notice Boro think we paid him off though, so we'll probably get a charge for that soon.

That picture is absolutley hilarious, it's just like I said it was - a kid with an iPhone on a public hill/behind a public tree taking some pictures of a training session that is on full view to any member of the public. That is it. Now tell me, please, what kind of sporting advantage anyone is going to gain from grainy IPhone footage? I know the 17 pro max has a decent zoom, but this is no 'professional grade video equipment' by any means. As every day goes on, Boro make themselves look more desperate and more idiotic by the hour. I listened to their managers press conference earlier, he was almost crying. Crying that all the work they do, so many hours, doesn't see his family, and it can all be undone by cheating. Hang on a fucking second. You battered us at your place in the first half, you had 17 shots on goal in the first half. You hit the post. You missed a chance right in the centre of goal, you had a shot cleared off the line. You were second in the table for 217 days, and finished 5th. How did we cause any of that to happen? We didn't. Simple. It's still funny, but they're really starting to wind me up now - and all the media cronies too. If you look, it's only the North East reporters who have such strong views - listen to neutral views and it's very much 'over reaction', 'it's a bit of poor form, that's all'. I can't wait for the crying when they find out their season is actually over, and no - it's not because of us, it's because you bottled the Top 2 and can't finish for dinner. Now STFU and go back to bed.

He was much better tonight, pulled Fry around a bit by running the channels - rather than staying static down the middle. He's a proper pest of a CF, I'll stand by my thought in that he's not the most refined striker - but physically he has all the tools, pace, power, strength.

They have all been a bit pathetic about it, it probably happened and we were dumb to get caught out doing whatever we were doing - but they have 110% used this to 'try' and carry the team to Wembley, they've blown this out of all proportion to try and give them an edge. It probably slightly did, but sadly for them they can't finish their dinner. I don't quite understand why there is talk of expulsion or anything like that, the media keep pitching it in the post match stuff. It's nonsense. That isn't going to happen. It will be a fine now, and if there are any footballing sanctions (which is a big if - bans/touchline bans or points) then it will be applied to next season. I know Boro's argument is 'how does that help us', well I'd suggest they could have helped themselves by staying in the Top 2 or finishing their chances in the 1st leg. And also, isn't it somewhat fun to be hated? We've always been seen as this soft, provisional, nondescript club who just goes about it's things - Mr Nice guy in football circles. But I actually quite like us being hated like this, it adds a bit of spice to it all.

Ignoring all the spy gate and fan nonsense and just talking about football, I thought they're a really well coached side. They made it really hard for us to get any space, or make any real dangerous openings. When they had their moments, they used the ball really well too and are a pretty tidy footballing side. Their finishing is what's cost them over the season though, they've just not been clinical enough. They blew their chance in the first half at their place, and it was the story of the season. Their fans have acted a bit weird, but I think from a footballing point of view they gave us as good a game we've had in a long time - and they'll probably do well next season if they add a couple of centre forwards.