S-Clarke

Absolutley, no one is saying we didn't break the rules and we had to be punished for doing so. But who is being punished here exactly? Not the club, not the owners - but the fans, who have had no involvement in this. Give the club a massive fine, make SR pay it personally or Tonda or whoever and sack them. But the fans of ALL clubs are being punished here and it feels so unfair to everyone. The club need to release a statement tonight, go to fuck with their internal emails to their staff - talk to the fucking fans, you fucking incompetent pricks.

Given the track record of these clowns in all of their other big decisions, I'm inclined to agree with you. Take everything from the club mouth pieces as a pinch of salt now.

EFL have already confirmed Boro take our place though, that's been communicated. They surely can't change the final line-up AGAIN based upon our appeal, this just feels like posturing by the club to try and get people on side. The usual line of ''We did everything we could'' bollocks.

They'll sell off anyone worth a dollar, cash the money, we'll end up with noddies and struggle in the league. I don't trust anything SR do, they need to go yesterday. We aren't recovering from this any time soon with SR at the helm. This is catastrophic for the entire club. We need a sale, new owners and a new identity because we've been trashed here.

This is the precedent and why our sanctions feel so, so, so out of whack. What we've been hit with is the equivalent of match fixing or fielding ineligible players, it doesn't feel proportonate. I appreciate that the rule wasn't in place when Leeds did it, but it's also not in place in the EPL. I just can't quite get my head around the severity of it, because this punishes the fans of all clubs more than it punishes the club. I'm not downplaying what we've done, I said it above that I'm done with the fuckers - but the EFL are a bit incompetent here. They've allowed us to keep selling tickets up until this afternoon, knowing fans would be arranging travel and accommodation. They've now made this decision which means Boro now have to rush through and arrange accommodation and tickets themselves. And a thought for Hull here too - they've spent the week preparing for us (not spying on us I'll add), but analysing our matches, planning for our shape etc. They've now got to rip up everything they've worked on to focus on Boro with just 2 full training days. The EFL have made an utter mess and it's the fans who suffer, not our incompetent owners. I'm all for accepting punishment for this, but punish the club, punish the individuals. All this does is punish the fans.

I actually feel sorry for THB, he was probably on the side of us fans - totally unaware of what had been going on in the true detail, just thought it was a bit of a misdemeanour at Boro. And now he will have this hanging over his career for ever. The punishment is clearly too severe, but there's nothing we can do about it. The club put us in this place, and we'll forever be known for this - this won't shake off after a summer or 3, it will take decades to re-establish ourselves as a genuine serious football club now. Maybe the outside world can appreciate how incompetent our owners are now.

There will never be a new narrative under these incompetent fuckers. Get them out before we're playing Southern national league.

Who knows, I didn't see them kicking us out at this short notice. They're probably incompetent enough to reinstate us tomorrow.

It throws everything up in the air, the entire league season has been put into disarray. Derby and Wrexham are more than entitled to come forward here, they just missed out on the playoffs. How many clubs are going to be looking at this and thinking....oh, we could have finished in position x had we not been beaten by Southampton. Heck, even Arsenal could argue they may be FA Cup Winners. This isn't just impacting us now, we've pulled the entire season into disarray.

I sadly think it's fairly clear this was systemic now. This mega turn around was no mega turn around. Those games at Charlton and Wrexham feel a bit iffy now.

The punishment should be a multimillion pound fine to Sports Republic, sacking of the indviduals involved. None of this punishes those who have done it. The coaches will probably get another job somewhere, SR will still rake in the money when we sell loads of players in the summer - and what do we get, the fans? Completely fucked over, out of pocket, reputations ruined all because of these charlatans of owners.

I'm done until these fuckers have gone. Everything they touch is a shit show. This is a new low. They've dragged this club through the mud. Get the fuckers out. They don't understand football.

To say I'm shocked by this is an understatement, I'll firstly say I feel the punishment is ridiculous in severity - has there been a heavier punishment in football, ever? (aside from Juventus and maybe Rangers) We haven't killed anyone, we haven't bribed anyone, we haven't partaken in match fixing, we haven't fielded ineligible players. This just feels so harsh in the context of everything else going on, and to come to this decision just 4 days out from the match day shows total disrespect to all fans and players - not just our fans, but Hull's and Boro's too - the EFL released more tickets to us just this morning. I'm not saying we haven't been dumb, we have - more on my disgust with that below, but comparing this against Leeds equal offence and it just feels too extreme to me. I appreciate this spying rule wasn't in place when Leeds admitted the offences, but does this new rule really equal expulsion and a points deduction? It feels as they've tried to make an example out of us, and as we don't have the profile of Leeds or Bielsa they can stamp on us. Onto what we've done, I don't think I can really put into words how disgusted, hurt and betrayed I am by the club I've always supported. I thought it was a one off, a kid going rouge with an IPhone at Boro - embarrassing, noddy for sure, but to then read we've done it on other occasions has just made my blood boil, as this has clearly been systemic which I didn't believe would be the case. I'd suggest those 3 are the tip of the iceberg, this may prompt other clubs to bring things forward. The entirety of 2026 is now fake, including the FA Cup run - I'm sure we can work out why it turned around so dramatically. We had a good team all season, we spent £55m on it - why did we feel we needed to try and glean an extra miniscule advantage against Oxford for example? Is everyone at the club so clueless that they literally needed everything spoon-fed on a platter? Seemingly so, yes. As fans we have spent our money to go and watch this team home and away, put money in the clubs pockets on merchandise and this is what is happening behind all our backs. The poor players have also been caught up in this, guys like THB will be tarnished for years given his celebration in the Semi Final. Think of Leo, such a talented player, ditto Jander. I feel for them because they've put in honest work tactically and been part of an uptick, which has actually turned out to be fake. I now don't trust anything which comes out of the club. I have to say that is yet another sorry Chapter in the life of Sport Republic and our football club. Everything they have been involved in with us has been a disaster, and this is the end of the road now. They need to get themselves out of here ASAP sharpish because we'll have 37,000 fans with pitchforks doing it otherwise.

I'm absolutley astounded by that. sheer incompetence by all. Absolutley horrific. They need to have a long fucking hard look at themselves after that. How can they do this? Us for doing what we did, fucking idiots. But Christ on a bike, how does that warrant this level of punishment? I'm shocked, taken a back by this. Not sure what to say.

Yeah it's been mental, how it's been dragged out isn't fair on anyone - Hull fans indirectly implicated. I don't know why they've left this hanging for as long as they have, it's not even the crime of the century in the grand scheme of things. Stupid, yes, but this is all so overblown and not fair on us fans.

Also I'd add that Boro's statement a few weeks ago was very desperate, and struck of them throwing their toys out - I reckon at this point everyone was told that the EFL recommends against expulsion, so they tried to apply a bit of pressure. That statement wouldn't have come from anywhere.

That's a great example, and it shows the process - the EFL don't make the decision, they will make recommendations based upon the evidence provided by Boro and ourselves. Boro aren't 'close' to this like they believe they are, we have been able to fight our corner with counter evidence - so we'll see what they come up with. If the EFL had recommended the committee to consider expulsion, we'd know about it by now. There will have been chats in the background with the clubs, media, Sky etc to set the expectation out in confidence.

Delighted for him, such a huge reward after a torrid few years. I just hope they manage him correctly during the summer. I thought it was over for him, I didn't ever see him coming back properly - but credit to him, as there must have been some dark days. I don't think he'll ever be a full 90 every week kind of player again, but he can still have an impact.

Yep exactly, as far as I know there are no specific sanctions applied to this new rule - so it's up to whoever to say what they feel is proportionate. Like you say, stopping us getting promoted in a one off game is totally different to Norwich being docked 6 points in the middle of next season, they could make that up. We couldn't. Punishments need to be proportionate and fair across multiple scenarios, and expulsion would be nonsense. As I said yesterday, I'm more angry/frustrated that the club have seemingly done something as stupid as this to hang a cloud over the build up. It's not fair on the fans more than anyone else, yet we're the ones being dragged through the mud. It should be an exciting week.

I don't understand why people think we're being booted out, it's too late for that. Just look at the facts. The club have almost sold out the allocation and are still activley selling tickets this morning. Travel, accommodation has been booked by thousands of fans of both Hull and ourselves. The cost to expel us would be huge to the EFL, they'd have Hull up in arms, our fans up in arms, accommodation non-refundable and a right old mess. The fans are innocent in all of this and expulsion would harm the fans a lot, and I'm sure the authorities wouldn't see that as a fair trade for something we've had no involvement in. The final is 23rd at 4:30 and it will happen as stands. If we were getting removed ourselves and Hull would have got wind by now. The hearing hasn't just 'started' today, things have been going on for a number of days. It will be club and individual specific sanctions, fines, bans and suspended points deductions are all that's on the table if anything is proven. Expulsion at this late stage harms the fans and will create an almighty mess everywhere.

When they kept pressing Tonda in the press-interviews post/pre-boro, he said he really would like to say what's gone on and say a bit more - but he can't yet, and when he can he will say what's happened. That doesn't strike me as someone who is about to confirm he's orchestrated a massive footballing spy franchise. Blown out of all proportion by the Boro lot is where I'm still sat, and which is why Saturday is happening. Not ITK, but there's no feasible way the EFL can stop this game now and change the opponent.

Their forums are like an extremely bad version of a Transfer ITK thread, it's somewhat embarrassing to read. Their focus should really be on why they didn't finish Top 2 after being there for 217 days, and not scoring in the first half against us when they had 17 shots.

There's no real past examples of that, there are no spying rules in this context in the PL. We'd almost certainly appeal that and probably win if it was applied to the EPL. IMO The points deduction can only truly apply in the EFL and it must be suspended for if we're caught doing it again, nothing else works. Boro won't like that, which is why a summer of courts ensues.

Worse case finance wise IMO, but if there is a point deduction it will be suspended. Not just for the EFL, but it will be applied in the EFL if we are caught doing it again. That's my best guess. They can't impose a sanction this summer as it would throw things into a bit of turmoil as the league is over, and equally keeping it suspended for when we next compete in the league isn't fair in my eyes. Caught doing it again, absolutely. But keeping that on hold in this context seems odd, given that if we go up we may stay in the PL for a decade. 250-500K for breaching the good faith rule, and then a bigger amount for breaching the new spying rule.

How I see this going - Rule 1 - Not acting in good faith, a fine. Not sure they can go much further above what they issued leeds with, as Leeds were charged based upon that existing rule. Rule 2 - Spying close to the game, new rule put in place. This is where the unknowns are, my best guess is a points deduction or another fine. The points deduction would be suspended in nature. Boro will be unhappy, they'll launch their own appeal via the courts (they can't appeal the EFL), and they'll try to sue us privately outside of EFL - so at that point, it's all about the money Gibson wants in compo rather than enforcing sporting sanctions as they can't do that. There is also a possibility of individual sporting bans, but these aren't decided by the EFL - this would go up to the FA/FIFA and a new disciplinary track, which will take time. So in my eyes the final goes ahead, the date won't change, the opponent won't change, but get ready for a summer of court battles.