Saint86

What chance do they have. They were told until yesterday they were playing Saints, now they have 2 days to prep for the EFL board members club, who conversely have been preparing to play Hull since last tuesday. Shocking. Hull should obviously take their own legal action against the EFL if they are not promoted.

OFC Sheldon is all over this with the initial release. The bloke loves to see saints in the mud.

Steve needs to get pedalling.

Can't not read this in Tessem's voice, absolutely cracked me up 😂

At this point i wouldn't put it past them just to wind us up on here 😂

Can't see it officially reported anywhere

We're the best team in the league, we should be promoted. We've royally screwed ourselves over but i doubt very much we've done anything that most teams weren't doing, and we've clearly been wronged by boro in a stitch up for the ages.

Is this guy reliable?

All the best Whitey.

Have we actually gone for pannick? Can't find it anywhere reliable.

If ever a comment was asking for a pile on...

Solak getting his shit together? Still think Parsons' comments have likely done for us sadly.

Not seen it said, but Happy 50th Anniversary of the cup winning season everyone! What a time to be a Saints fan🥳

There is a less than 1% chance we get reinstated in this appeal. Not for shit. They might arrange a Boro vs Millwall one off game at a neutral venue to mitigate legal threats from Boro and delay the final. I do not know how they placate hull in the event they fail to win promotion as evidently Hull should be promoted.

Balls, thanks for sharing, sadly a wipe out of the key decision makers will make this even worse.

This is not any darker than League 1 - 10points and being days away from going bust. If players jump ship, if we struggle, if we get relegated and go into admin... someone will always be interested in buying saints and we would rebuild as a club and come back. Look at the support at Wembley, at Preston away, at St Mary's vs Boro. We are unquestionably the best fanbase on the south coast, and that alone is worth a fair amount. That won't just disappear no matter how emotional (angry/sad etc) or tired people are of it right now. And ultimately, the punishment is so ridiculously OTT, that the worse our plight as a result, the more sympathy we'd gather from the footballing community in the years that followed. Everyone responsible will be long gone but the fans and club would still be here. As for any ruling today. I'd expect the EFL to reject our appeal, delay the final, and maybe allow boro vs millwall as a one off match at a neutral venue. More money for them, legal cases removed bar Hull.

Saints should offer significant reward sums for hard evidence. Make it public.

But we literally have them a 3 goal head start FFS. Boro wanted that as a punishment in the play offs...

Loophole? Certainly makes you think.

Boro came 7th that year. They had to firstly prove it had a material impact on them getting into the playoffs, then that they would have won the semi final and the final. In this case they qualified for the playoffs and had they won the semi final had a 50/50 chance at winning the final. So its more like a direct share of the £200M. Add to that that the prize money has significantly increased in that time period, and its likely we'd be facing something like a £10-20M lawsuit on top of loss of parachute payments, merchandising, poorer transfer incomings etc., I mean, if we aren't going up regardless, purely from an SFC perspective, there are benefits to boro being given a shot at the final.

To be blunt. Boro getting a chance at the final saves us a legal suit from Boro. Which is the one i would actually be worried about being on the end of. We aren't going up, we don't need boro suing us for a loss of chance at the final - which now we have admitted cheating would purely be a question of "how much" compensation we'd owe them.

Think the EFL could rue the day they let Gibson call the shots.

They vary from case to case, but broadly speaking this one will go as follows: We ask. The EFL says no. Gibson laughs in our face.

I don't accept that its just complete a fluke that Boro's CEO is the championship rep on the efl board, that the punishment we've been given is exactly the punishment Boro called for, that that punishment has been met with almost universal stunned amazement, and that boro have been given the nonsensical and grossly unfair reward of being reinstated and given a final date vs an unprepared hull on Saturday. Its all come from Boro via the EFL.

This is now about trying to pursue the legal case. Although sadly, Parson has likely cooked us there by admitting to everything off hat. "Southampton can credibly argue that expulsion from the playoff final is unprecedented and disproportionate compared to prior sanctions. However, given their CEO (Parson) has readily admitted to repeated and deliberate breaches of clear EFL rules and their impact on the integrity of the competition, an appeal body is likely to afford the regulator a wide margin of discretion. Therefore, the challenge is arguable but not strong."