Lord Duckhunter

That’s just a catch all in case a team come up with a way to “cheat” the authorities hadn’t thought of. They can claim there was no rule against it, but will still face a sanction.

That’s the only thing they could have done. But most people (me included) assumed that once that tie went ahead we were in the clear in respect of being turfed out. Maybe we should have got ahead of this, admitted everything from day one, and asked for the sanctions to be administered that Sun/Mon. That would have left the option of a 3-0 defeat on the table. Of course the alternative could have been the panel chucked us out anyway. Once that game was played, the Sporting sanctions were either, future ban from play offs, or ???. Part of the sanctions has to be to discourage future transgressions. Now we’re chucked out, nobody will spy in a play off game, had we been playing Sat, what would the deterrent be to stop a team doing it next season. We know in the league will be 3 points per game (reduced under certain circumstances), but what would stop anyone doing it playoffs only had we remained in them?

What would they be saying if the roles were reversed & Boro beat us after spying. Put Hull through 🤣🤣🤣

So what do you think the punishment should have been once the panel decided the play offs were a separate competition & a sporting sanction was appropriate. We seem to have used footballs top lawyer on our appeal, and he couldn’t get anywhere.

🤣🤣🤣🤣 The reaction in here is anything but normal, it’s unhinged.

That’s only what the club claimed. We admitted we lied earlier in the process & spied on other clubs to find out their formations. Personally I don’t believe that was the only reason we went up there, anymore than I believe Oxford & Ipswich were the only other 2 instances. Bielsa did a full briefing on why he did it, what he hoped to achieve by doing it, and the advantages it gave him. Tonda admitted he did it to gain a sporting advantage, yet some of our supporters are still banging on about no advantage gained. As the hearing said, that’s irrelevant. Its advantage sought not gained that mattered.

Do you really not think those were the 2 instances we knew they could prove. Admitting them probably got us a reduction. I’m sure you’d be the first complaining about the clubs strategy if we denied it, then we got 6 points because we lied and they had texts or what’s app messages sending a whistleblower there.

The delusion on here is off the scale. Tonda admitted he sent someone up to check on their line up, he wasn’t “set up”. We would have tried regardless of any outside influence. Just like we did against Oxford & Ipswich (and you don’t think there’s any more you seriously need to give your head a wobble). Stop making cocks of yourselves…

Spot on.

So reading the general consensus, the Saintsweb brains trust seem to have concluded you don’t gain an advantage by spying, and everyone does it. Kind of contradicts each other I’d have thought. Of course everyone could be involved in an activity that doesn’t benefit them 🤣🤣 Also “Gibbo” used us this as a cunning back up plan in case they missed out on promotion. This does rather beg the question, if everyone’s at it, why didn’t he “stitch up Ipswich & Coventry to go up automatically. I just hope the full report is issued soon, so we can put to bed most of the pony on here. We cheated and got caught, I’ve no doubt we tried to do it in entry single game, and had we not been caught, would have tried to do it in the second leg, and the final against Hull. The whinging on here is worse than the Boro site was.

Given their track record 😂😂. You nods were convinced they didn’t have a case. They were right and people like you were wrong.

Tell me you don’t still believe this was all it was.

Yeah, because if the boot was on the other foot and Boro were caught cheating against us, you’d absolutely be calling for us not to play Hull wouldn’t you. Dear God, some of our posters.. the standard process in a cup competition is anyone chucked out for cheating is replaced by the team they beat. Can you give one example of where a team was booted out of a cup, to be replaced by a team who lost in a completely different tie. It’s not some conspiracy, it’s not the EFL on “Gibbos” pay roll, it’s not a media driven anti Saints agenda. If you’re chucked out of a cup after a breach of the rules in a game, the team you beat progress to the next round…

Are you really that dopey. They caught us, that’s why we didn’t spy on them for the second leg, that’s why we didn’t watch the last 3 days of their preparation. It wasn’t a case of Tonda asking the bloke to pop up there and watch a few minutes of training, then come home. The judgment will be based on what effect cheating COULD have given us, not what it did give us. Anything else would be ridiculous, you’d be saying to Middlesbrough “well done for catching the bloke & bringing it to our attention, but because you did so, Southampton didn’t gain an advantage, so we’re not kicking them out”. FFS, people need to get a grip.

It’s been pretty obvious from the start that if the play offs were deemed seperate from the league, we were fucked. Nobody has seen the full report, but I imagine this is the case. What alternative sporting sanction was there. People saying we only spied on the first leg are missing the point. Had we not been caught, would we have spied on the second leg as well. Who can honestly say we wouldn’t have. Once they decided it was a separate competition & once they decided a sporting sanction was appropriate, the only logical punishment was chucking us out. What sporting sanctions were available to them, banned from future play offs, is the only one I can think, and that’s completely unrealistic. Our only appeal play off wise is it shouldn’t be a sporting sanction. Good luck with that one…. The only hope is somewhere the process was messed up, and we get back in on a technicality, about 0.5% chances that. We’re fucked and we fucked ourselves

If he was aware of it, it’s inconceivable he won’t be fired.

If they have judged it 2 competitions, 4 points the league, then thrown out the other competition. It’s not double punishment.

What???? It made sense because we cheated against Middlesbrough, why is this so difficult for some people to understand. Millwall lost fair and square, the people making this sanction didn’t think Middlesbrough did. The chucked us out for cheating, in that game. If sides are chucked out of the cup, the team they played go through, they don’t put someone through who lost a different tie.

I’m wondering whether our legal team agreed to a quick turnaround believing we’d never be chucked out & being seen to help in the hastening of a decision would earn us a lighter sanction. Probably would have done, if the other stuff hadn’t come to light at the weekend. With hindsight, we obviously should have applied time pressure on the EFL, but sticking to the strict letter of the law. Taking the maximum time to answer the charge & insist on 14 days to appeal after the full reasoning was published.

Interesting if we’re challenging the process, specifically the 14 days on appeal. Wasn’t there a top lawyer bid who questioned the part about full details of report being released later in summer. He said, how can you have a fair appeal if you can’t read the full findings & have time to digest them.

Didn’t somebody who posted this morning that Tonda was involved also allude to bullying. I wonder if this will be the defence of any junior staff caught up in this and facing a ban. I wonder if the whistleblower feels he was bullied into doing it.

To believe he didn’t know it was illegal, you also have to believe we didn’t spy on anyone else. Surely if you thought it was legal, you’d spy on more than Oxford, Ipswich & Boro

Do we really believe Tonda, who we’re told, lives and breathes football, was unaware of the Canadian birds at the olympics or of Beilsa and Leeds. Are we seriously to believe nobody at the club informed him, or mentioned it maybe illegal, when people were sent up to grounds. If that’s the case why did the spy try and run off. Surely if you’re doing something perfectly legal, you’d say “I’m from Southampton, watching your training” when asked what he was doing and who he was.

Go down the charge back if by debit or section 75 route if you paid by Credit card. I got a refund once, minus the delivery charge and my CC company paid that…

Do people still believe this? “A bit”, “incompetent”. Only getting caught once, shows a level of competence. Anyone who doesn’t think there was widespread attempts to cheat is living in cloud cuckoo land. I suspect that’s why the punishment is so harsh, they knew full well we were at it a lot more than we admitted.