Badger

That’s quite a conspiracy theory to top them all. In other words, the bloke in the bushes was a plant.

Pleased for Rochdale after their York City game.

Bollocks to the EPL, EFL, and ‘spy gate’ nonsense. The real drama over last couple of weeks has been in the National League. Rochdale with a 97th minute equaliser!

Will be tough. Difficult to call, so I’m putting £10 on a Saints win, and the same for Middlesbrough. Sort of game to ‘hedge’ my bets.

Cunts. Isn’t that an infringement of his civil liberties? Guardian will be all over this.

Except VAR operates within the rules of the game and seeks to enforce them. That’s the theory anyway.

Surprised the Gruaniad have time to waste on this, thought they’d be too busy wanking over Polanski

Unidentified bloke, matching Pilchards description…

Proof indeed that we were spying on Middlesbrough earlier in the season !

Is that a serious question you start with ? The FA/EFL answer would be that a)it undermines the spirit of the game, andb) it’s against regulations. No further explanation should be necessary. * It’s not a question of what if any advantage has been gained, it’s more about whether and why it has happened at all. * it’s also irrelevant if the practice is commonplace in the game,

Difficult and complex area, but I’d assume the club might have to demonstrate that they’d provided some guidance over the ‘ethics’ of ‘scouting’ etc or show measures in place to completely distance themselves from it. Many industries and professions have regulatory training to ensure compliance. Always seems it’s only partly educational, but also an arse covering exercise so that in the event of falling foul they can point out that they’ve done all in their power to prevent occurrences. But I’m probably talking out of my arse.

Okay, bow to your knowledge.

Perhaps the argument will be the club are still expected to ensure employees operate within the regulations.

Just a thought but the process of investigating this for internal purposes, putting on notice etc, and procedures to satisfy employment law - even for an intern, or temporary employee- is probably more longwinded involving a suspension and review, than the EFL process for going through the motions.

And all of next season…