S-Clarke

Another SR DOF bites the dust I guess. What a record they've got.

It was way over the top, it's a ridiculous punishment and I don't think it's quite over yet - in terms of us going after the EFL again in the future. But I won't ever forgive those at the club who felt something like this would give us any form of advantage, and why they risked it in the way they did. They've seemingly been blatant about it, like it's all a big joke to them. They're the ones who need to be punished here, properly punished.

The first half of the season wasn't memorable, but the second half certainly was. I will always remember enjoying watching Leo, such a talented player. Jander is going to be top too, will be keen to watch his career. THB turned it around with us and became a really solid captain when required, bit of a shithouse - sure, but all teams have a shit house. Hopefully he gets into the England squad in the next 12 months. For the guys out of contract, I don't blame you for not wanting to stick around. Bree, Peretz, Larin, Stewart - thank you. We tossed Bree out in the summer, and then brought him back in to tarnish him over this - he didn't deserve any of this. But it's been a ride with some of these guys, the last few months have been fun. I'm sure they've enjoyed it too, but they must be fuming to now realise they've just played a season of friendlies.

This is the thing isn't it. The players, the staff, they can all head off tomorrow. They might get some bans from football (staff wise), but they've all got enough in their banks to probably never worry about money again. Whereas us guys, who just went to every game enjoying it, up and down the country, are left to hold this can for the the entirety of time. This is why it's not proportionate. They have punished the fans for something stupid individuals at the club have done. The losers are the fans in all of this, in so many ways. We don't need empty statements and weak apologies, they need to come out front and centre and complete a massive cull and tell all the honest fans what on earth the plan is next. That needs to start tomorrow. Will that happen? Absolutley fucking not, not with these wishy washy wankers in charge.

How can you say this? How can we keep anyone on who has been implicated by this? I don't care if he didn't know about the rule, I find that hard to believe. What I do care is that his actions have dragged my football club and all of our fans through the mud, into a situation which we will likely not recover from if I'm honest. This is the sort of scenario which needs a clear the decks approach, there's no other way to tackle it. And also, the FA will now get involved given the damming evidence of WhatsApp messages. If Tonda has any decency, he'll now walk and we'll probably never hear of him again. The mysterious hungry eyed spying moron.

They're incompetent, don't trust them to do anything. I wouldn't even trust them to put us in administration correctly. If their defence was really as loose as ''Tonda didn't know the rule existed'' and ''Well, Leeds got a 200k fine'' and ''Well, Chelsea only got fined £10m" then it's an utter joke. We have pulled Chelsea, Luton, Eastleigh, Hull, Leeds and Derby into our mess. We have put a stain on this club which will never leave us. Not just because of what we did, but because of how we've seemingly tried to weakly wiggle ourselves out of it by bringing other clubs into it. This is going to be a quagmire of a summer for us. I feel for the players who have given everything to get where we finished, blood and sweat, and the fans who have been left to carry the can for this for eternity.

There isn't, they've released a load of nonsense. Southampton Football Club has this evening been informed that the EFL’s League Arbitration Panel has upheld the sanctions imposed earlier this week. As a result, the club will not participate in Saturday’s Championship Play-Off Final. This is an extremely disappointing outcome for everybody connected with Southampton Football Club. We know how painful this moment will be for our supporters, players, staff, commercial partners and the wider community who have given so much backing to the team throughout the season and we apologise once again to everyone impacted by this. While we fully acknowledge the seriousness of this matter and the scrutiny that has followed, the club has consistently believed the original sporting sanction was disproportionate, a view that has been widely shared by many in the football community over the last 24 hours. We would like to place on record our sincere thanks to our supporters for the support, patience and loyalty they have shown throughout an incredibly difficult period. We will share information as soon as possible in relation to ticket refunds for those who bought tickets to Wembley. Southampton Football Club has a proud history and strong foundations, but it is clear that trust now needs to be rebuilt. That work begins immediately. The club will reflect carefully on the events that have led to this point, learn from them and take the necessary steps to move forward responsibly. While tonight is a painful moment, this football club will respond with humility, accountability and determination to put things right.

This 'due course' nonsense from the EFL needs to be NOW. We deserve to understand the severity of what has gone on here, as our entire club has been destroyed and we really need to understand exactly what we've done. Don't sit on this for months.

So yeah, we were incompetent then. If that KC bloke can't get us off, then we must have done some serious shit. There is a lot to come out in the water here, this isn't over yet. The people involved in this has ruined the name of this football club and dragged our fans through the mud. The EFL have made a mug out of multiple fanbases. The only winners in this are Boro.

But if you swap that logic to yesterday, it's the same argument. They allowed us to continue selling tickets up until 5pmish if i recall correctly. There's no logic to anything here, literally anything can happen.

I'm not betting on anything, could end up in L2 by the end of the night!

Boro 'ITK's (i say ITK's loosely), are claiming the decision is being overturned. 'Players relative source'. Smells bollocks, but thought I'd share. No idea how anyone would know yet.

Can we sub Shea Charles on to score a 9:50pm winner? He's good with these late show things.

Wishing you all the best Whitey - sorry to hear of what you're going through.

Hopefully these lawyers are no win no fee.

This is the same EFL who approved the takeover of that guy at Wigan, who bought the club, only to dump them into administration, and then promptly did over Wigan again by docking them loads of points. Wigan are now forever a lower league team because of it. Clueless bunch.

Depends how much said clubs will pay the FA/EFL to keep it on the hush though, as let's be fair - that's all it will come down to at the end of the day. Nothing is about sporting fairness or what's best for the fans, it's all about money, money, money.

It does stink because the punishment we've got is almost word for word what Boro wanted, which they even 'requested' on their website a few days ago. And somehow, lots of Boro ITK's seemed to know this was going to happen in the run up as well. The whole thing stinks top to bottom. No one comes out of this smelling of roses.

Wouldn't it be a plot twist if originally, when this whistle-blower was at Boro before he joined us, he was actually spying on us - so we employed him to protect ourselves so he didn't share anything with other clubs. That would be the ultimate mic drop moment in footballing history. So, so, far fetched, but this has all been far fetched.

I wouldn't blame Hull City at all, or Wrexham for that matter. Lots will have a case. This will be a mess that will not be over in a week, or two, or 10. Is there also a possibility that this just opens an entire avalanche of worms? and other clubs, and ourselves, start presenting evidence of other cheating activities which we've just kept on the low down up until this point? Who knows. It all feels a mess, the EFL have just fucked it in my eyes for every fan. Which they always do. Look at their incompetence with their fit and proper persons tests, the bloody morons.

It's a good statement, we all wanted one, so they put it out there. Apologies prevalent in it too, which is the least we can do. We've finally held our hands up in public. The arguments we've put forward regarding the proportions are fair, I think we all agree. But the reasoning around why feels a little woolly. I hope our case is stronger than that.

Staggering really. I'd be stunned if there was any training today, or if the manager was there. Interesting if that is the views of the players re: Tonda, you can imagine how totally let down they all feel. Some of them have put their careers on the line, THB with his jokey celebration, Downes coming out praising Tonda for knowing everything about teams before the game etc. I just feel like their names could be dragged through the mud, like us fans, without any wrongdoing on our part. This is a flaming mess. I've never seen anything like this in my life.

That's how I see it really, we've been hit by twice as they want to class the playoffs as a cup competition - but they're including games from the league in the evidence pack for that charge, so it's a bit all over the shop from the EFL. Whatever happens I'm properly ashamed though, you can say we didn't gain an advantage because Boro didn't take their chances, but the intent was there - that's the thing. We didn't go there for fun, we went there with the intent to get some inside information that could aid our result. I'm fairly certain we've done this multiple times and in games we've won. I don't think this goes away any time soon, this is an absolute quagmire which will stretch the entire league and I think the EFL are making it more of one that they needed to.

The fact they've got the exact outcome they asked for on their website stinks.

Basically, if you look at it that way, we have been charged with spying 3x times. Oxford, Ipswich and Boro. The Boro one in isolation has had the potential to impact Boro, fair. But the other two haven't impacted Boro. The punishment is essentially a £250m fine for us, and a potential £250m reward for Boro. Whilst anyone else implicated is ignored and Hull are dragged through the mire too. Make that make sense.