Saints Expelled from Playoffs

[The Wyvern]

2 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

It is just bollox and posturing to the audience (us). At the very start the theme from the club that this person acted alone. Possibly did at Boro but we, as a club, then admitted to this act previously.

There is no way we spied on Oxford then no one else until the other week, whilst going on an huge unbeaten run in between.

How many clubs have training facilities that can be viewed by the public?  Can't be many.  We've probably done it a few times and utterly stupid to have done it and be caught like this, but keep some perspective, we can't have been doing it every week. 

[kwsaint]

If Middlesbrough go up they could genuinely threaten Derby’s record.

[skintsaint]

to top off today.... Bournemouth make Europe, no doubt Spurs will get a point.

[HedgeEnder]

Just gutted by this. Spent an absolute fortune watching Saints home and away this season and all for nothing. What a fucking shit show.

[Gloucester Saint]

4 minutes ago, Pamplemousse said:

I've never wanted Hull to win a game of football so much.

That will be the last football match I have an interest in for quite some time. Hull should’ve had a bye.

SFC are just another football club to me until SR, Tonda, Parsons and anyone else involved in this shambles are gone lock, stock and barrel. Not sure I’d take an interest again even with new ownership although maybe after a few years associating with the club might feel less grubby. 

Fuck the WC too with Infantino and Trump.

Edited 2 hours ago by Gloucester Saint

[sotonjoe]

9 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

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.

The eft statement acknowledged that Southampton's appeal ruling could mean further changes made to the fixture 

[Willo of Whiteley]

2 minutes ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

Well you were full of yourself today, how you loved “winding up” Middlesbrough fans, updates from their fiporum. Oh how you laughed, you’re not fucking laughing now are you…

No, none of us are.

What a weird flex for a Southampton fan.

We all find it an over the top punishment, but actually to hear who we spied on and win it taints it hugely now and feels dirty.

[Thripp87]

I’ve taken some time to compose myself from this news, my initial reaction was anger and complete shock. I didn’t see this coming at all. My immediate disappointment is for my son, 8 years old, in tears tonight because of my own football club. Not because we have lost in the last minute, but because of the single handed most stupid decision a professional sports club has made. 
We have beaten Arsenal and almost Man City, two clubs we couldn’t possibly spy on due to the measures in place, that should show how ridiculous this whole decision was. The results of the 3 games we have admitted speaks volumes of the decision we have made.

The club seriously needs to come out with some PR, forget appeals and lawyers, that ship has sailed. A complete refund to the fans of the whole season is the first thing that should be brought in. I sit here tonight becoming more frustrated at my own club than anything or anyone else. I want to know who is accountable for this. Assuming it was Tonda who sanctioned this he can fuck off.

I do however take huge anger at the fact Hull have not just been promoted. Middlesbrough being reinstated is a complete kick in the bollocks. EFL couldn’t possibly not play the most expensive game in football.

The questions I have unanswered. 1.)Have Oxford and Ipswich come out with evidence, if so, why did we admit it?

2.) Who authorised it?

3.) Are we at risk of being taken to court by our own players? Imagine running through a brick wall like they have the last 21 games, to be let down by the club like this. They have been robbed of premier league wage increases etc.

4.) logistically how do they play this game on Saturday? Hull are at a huge disadvantage now having prepared to play us,

 

[ButtikonSaint]

Our most embarrassing day, superseding some real and recent humdingers.
Irrespective of the appeal, we'll now be labelled cheats for years to come.
It's tragic, pathetic and unforgivable.

 

[obelisk]

Makes you wonder what the punishment will be for the next club caught scouting opponents if this is going to be the precedent. Just don't get caught is going to be the message.

[ChristopheVAFC]

My friends, I’m devastated by this news tonight. I feel so sorry for you all...😞

The EFL’s decision is very harsh...😳

Stay strong, everyone. 🙏

[suewhistle]

So it would have depended on a result on Saturday, but potentially a fine of £180 million and four points, all for a bit of ill-judged and incompetent spying - bothin how it was done and its benefits.

I'm not reading back now , but potentially no ticket refunds and a half empty stadium? Plus it will be unfair on Hull as they would have prepared to play us. 

[Saint86]

9 minutes ago, hypochondriac said:

Give it up saints. Embarrassing 

Parsons should be one of the first to be shown the door.

[tdmickey3]

Just now, The Wyvern said:

How many clubs have training facilities that can be viewed by the public?  Can't be many.  We've probably done it a few times and utterly stupid to have done it and be caught like this, but keep some perspective, we can't have been doing it every week. 

Alex doesnt do perspective 

[Willo of Whiteley]

Just resigned from Saints on my FM save because it felt dirty.

😂

[Window Cleaner]

2 minutes ago, skintsaint said:

Think we all accepted that, its the severity of the punishment i don't agree with.

We sought to gain some sort of advantage by cheating. The punishment fits the crime. If we hadn't got caught we may have profited from any advantage gained, might still have if Boro had to change their system in any way because of our illegal activity.

Should have sent someone better to do the spying.

The moral here is don't get caught.

[SambaMaverick]

Everyone who had knowledge (imo includes Tonda & Spors, everyone below them) will have to go, should be fairly easy to release them.

Followed swiftly by SR selling up, although dopey Dragan will have to take a big wipe down on whatever he paid - he'll likely be glad to be shot of us I'd imagine.

Until that's all done, I can't see myself paying a penny to the club.

[AlexLaw76]

Tonda, Spors and Salt expected to be sanctioned by the FA, regardless

 

[Cabrone]

Utterly sickening.

Firstly Gibson didn't give a monkey's about the rules, he sensed an opportunity, kicked up a mighty media storm and IMO cheated his way to a Wembley place. They lost - Hull should go through. I'm going to feel sick if they go up on the back of this.

Secondly and this will be contentious but I'd keep Tonda and tell him auto promotion is the expectation next season.

He'll be burning to retrieve this and he owes us.

He's been our best manager since Ralph and possibly could go on to be even more successful. Getting rid of him for another Russel Martin\Will Still\Ruben Selles will be shooting ourselves in the foot even more. I expect him to suck up the abuse and achieve catharsis via autos (this assumes the FL isn't going to punish him personally).

SR can foxtrot oscar, I'm sick of the sight of them. After a series of useless appointments they finally looked like they were getting it right only to screw it up again. Seriously - FO.

Sick.

[LegalEagle]

31 minutes ago, Turkish said:

Yep, we've had 9-0 losses humiliating relegations and lets be honest none of us wanted to believe this was true. We all though it was a bit of a joke, a kid by a tree on his phone, It would all blow over, we'd go to Wembley, win and try and stay up next year but just when you thought SRs ownership couldn't get any lower it does

Imagine being a player who'd worked your bollocks off for a manager you thought was a genius only to find out he'd duped you, why would you stick around?

We finally like we had a team we could love and it was all bollocks. Maybe the punishment was over the top, it feels like the harshest ever at the moment but the fact we even put overselves in position in the first place is whats shameful. 

Spot on Turkish

[davefizzy14]

2 minutes ago, Convict Colony said:

The EFL in their statement said the fixture could change again depending on the appeal so its sort of like lets pause this until this time tomorrow

Heres hoping we win the appeal.

[The Wyvern]

Just now, OnceaSaintalwaysaSaint said:

This is surely just fanciful thinking.

We should have got the Man City lawyers in from the start and read the riot act to the panel from the beginning. Watching players doing shuttle runs (and Oxford? Are you kidding?) does not gain any material advantage. We've been conned out of our place at Wembley and frankly I'm blaming our legal team.

We now need someone who can somehow keep this team together and say right lads, let's show these fu*ckers that we're good enough to get promoted. SR don't sell anyone. Unite them to be all conquering next season. 

Agreed.  One step behind Boro in all this from the start.  Look at all the other clubs that pull out the heavy weight lawyers, make things difficult and as an absolute minimum get it dragged out until another season.  F**k knows who we've been using this for this, same goes for our media team not being on top of the comms at all. 

[saint-ross]

I hope all those fans delusional fans who have spent the past week laughing and joking have finally woken up and accepted the reality of the situation. 

Got what we deserved. 

[Lighthouse]

1 minute ago, S-Clarke said:

But who is being punished here exactly? Not the club, not the owners - but the fans, who have had no involvement in this.

What on earth are you talking bout? The club/owners have just been kicked out of a playoff worth over £100m, how is that not a punishment?

 

[saintant]

26 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

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.

The problem is we've been caught spying on 3 clubs. Only a fool would think we got caught on only the 3 times we did it. It's been systemic so that's why the book has been thrown at us.

It's hard to figure out what we got out of the spying - we didn't win any of the 3 games cited and the Oxford match was a complete shit show.

This is totally gutting on so many levels.

[sfc4prem]

Just now, sotonjoe said:

The eft statement acknowledged that Southampton's appeal ruling could mean further changes made to the fixture 

Wouldn't that show the EFL to be even more of a farce than they already are?

They set shite rules.

They take a fucking age to respond to inquiries.

They allow ticket sales during an ongoing investigation that could impact the match tickets were on sale for.

They expel a club whom have sold 38,000 tickets a few days before the match.

It's fucking wild to me.

We come out of this with no credit, embarrassing. The EFL come out of it with fuck all credit either. Cunts.

[S-Clarke]

Just now, saint-ross said:

I hope all those fans delusional fans who have spent the past week laughing and joking have finally woken up and accepted the reality of the situation. 

Got what we deserved. 

I don't think that's fair to say at all, the fans have not got what we deserved at all. It's so harsh to say that.

None of this is our fault, we're being punished for some stupid kid pricks at our football club who will be of no relevance in a few years - but we'll still be lumbered with it.

[sadoldgit]

4 minutes ago, trousers said:

 

To not even put out a holding one-liner along the lines of: "We acknowledge the EFL ruling and the angst of our fans. We will of course provide a full update after the appeal process has reached a conclusion" is rubbing salt into the wounds (pun intended).

 

I expect they are like us, just sitting round saying, “WTF just happened?”

[Gloucester Saint]

1 minute ago, SambaMaverick said:

Everyone who had knowledge (imo includes Tonda & Spors, everyone below them) will have to go, should be fairly easy to release them.

Followed swiftly by SR selling up, although dopey Dragan will have to take a big wipe down on whatever he paid - he'll likely be glad to be shot of us I'd imagine.

Until that's all done, I can't see myself paying a penny to the club.

It’s gross misconduct for anyone instructing/approving it. 

[Midfield_General]

I'm pretty sure Wrexham are behind all this. Ryan's pulled a few strings to create an extra dramatic cliffhanger for the last episode of Season 5

[Miltonaggro]

16 minutes ago, trousers said:

That looks like Parsons trying to save face / his own arse, there.

[Holmes_and_Watson]

51 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

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.

In the semi final, when we were getting lots of corners, I was thinking how great it was we were so good at them, with THB and even Matsuki getting central. Then it dawned on me why that might be.

 

[spyinthesky]

Just now, skintsaint said:

to top off today.... Bournemouth make Europe, no doubt Spurs will get a point.

You have to give Bournemouth & Boscombe Albion some credit.
Always considered to be our small town friendly cousins down the road and as a consequence a source of quite a few Saints supporters form the Bournemouth/Poole conurbation and now the top team in the region.
Fair play to them.
Reckon it will be a fair few years before the status quo returns to normal.

[Sarcoidevo]

Again ..... why would the club freely admit to spying on Oxford & Ipswich if there is no concrete evidence .... was there a whistleblower? .... did Oxford & Ipswich know about it and complained and the League kept it under wraps? 

Does anyone have an answer? 

What's the evidence .... apart from us being "honest"? 

If there is evidence ... why hasnt it come out earlier? 

Not sure why people are blowing over this ..... something just ain't adding up 

 

[Toussaint]

7 minutes ago, Window Cleaner said:

So, in short, we broke the rules, got caught and have now been punished for breaking said rules. 

Makes sensé really. 

 

 

Proportionality is the bigger issue, not culpability. 

[SambaMaverick]

Just now, Gloucester Saint said:

It’s gross misconduct for anyone instructing/approving it. 

That's if the instruction/sign-off didn't come from the very very top. Wouldn't put it past this lot, I really wouldn't.

[qwertyell]

11 minutes ago, trousers said:

Is it the same legal team that were confident that Toby Alderweireld was signed, sealed, and delivered, with no possible loopholes that would allow him to join Spurs instead?

No point being confident in anyone associated with this club to be anything other than useless. 

 

[S-Clarke]

1 minute ago, Lighthouse said:

What on earth are you talking bout? The club/owners have just been kicked out of a playoff worth over £100m, how is that not a punishment?

 

Then fine the club £100-200m and have them pay it then, don't drag the fans along with it as none of it is our fault.

[skintsaint]

2 minutes ago, saint-ross said:

fans who have spent the past week laughing and joking

To be fair the AI was working overload yesterday creating some funny shit.

[BotleySaint]

Club needs to terminate the contract of all involved. Apologise to the fans and players. But it really depends how high up this goes in the club and who sanctioned it.

Can't trust the club right now. And they've made a mockery of our reputation as a club that may never recover.

[AlexLaw76]

1 minute ago, Sarcoidevo said:

Again ..... why would the club freely admit to spying on Oxford & Ipswich if there is no concrete evidence .... was there a whistleblower? .... did Oxford & Ipswich know about it and complained and the League kept it under wraps? 

Does anyone have an answer? 

What's the evidence .... apart from us being "honest"? 

If there is evidence ... why hasnt it come out earlier? 

Not sure why people are blowing over this ..... something just ain't adding up 

 

Nothing to add up, we admitted to it, we cheated.

Just imagine what we have not needed to admit?

[Big M]

45 years I've supported Saints and I've never known a darker day for the club,I never feel sorry for players on their massive salaries but I do for this team,I wouldn't blame a single one of them for getting onto their agents and getting a move, who'd want to stay? It's toxic,toxic ownership and toxic decision making.And every single season ticket owner should get they're money back because the club have massively cheated them too.

[Osvaldorama]

3 minutes ago, The Wyvern said:

Agreed.  One step behind Boro in all this from the start.  Look at all the other clubs that pull out the heavy weight lawyers, make things difficult and as an absolute minimum get it dragged out until another season.  F**k knows who we've been using this for this, same goes for our media team not being on top of the comms at all. 

Yep, fucking amateur hour. Drag it out as long as we can. 
 

Why the fuck did we agree to move it all up and admit to it? 

[sotonjoe]

14 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

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.

 

2 minutes ago, sfc4prem said:

Wouldn't that show the EFL to be even more of a farce than they already are?

They set shite rules.

They take a fucking age to respond to inquiries.

They allow ticket sales during an ongoing investigation that could impact the match tickets were on sale for.

They expel a club whom have sold 38,000 tickets a few days before the match.

It's fucking wild to me.

We come out of this with no credit, embarrassing. The EFL come out of it with fuck all credit either. Cunts.

As you say it's already a complete farce. On current plans they've got Boro putting tickets on sale on Thursday for a game on Saturday, pending outcome of.an appeal on wednesday. 

[S-Clarke]

1 minute ago, Holmes_and_Watson said:

In the semi final, when we were getting lots of corners, I was thinking how great it was we were so good at them, with THB and even Matsuki getting central. Then it dawned on me why that might be.

 

We did get really good at corners didn't we. 

[Lard]

More importantly,will Tonda have to give his manager of the month awards back?

seriously though,what an absolute clusterfuck of a club. 
shameful. 
I want to see heads roll for this. 
club has taken the fans for mugs. 

[Convict Colony]

2 minutes ago, Midfield_General said:

I'm pretty sure Wrexham are behind all this. Ryan's pulled a few strings to create an extra dramatic cliffhanger for the last episode of Season 5

Its not ryan, if you have a wife or girlfriend you would know by osmosis that it is really blake lively behind all of this

[Saint86]

9 minutes ago, OnceaSaintalwaysaSaint said:

This is surely just fanciful thinking.

We should have got the Man City lawyers in from the start and read the riot act to the panel from the beginning. Watching players doing shuttle runs (and Oxford? Are you kidding?) does not gain any material advantage. We've been conned out of our place at Wembley and frankly I'm blaming our legal team.

We now need someone who can somehow keep this team together and say right lads, let's show these fu*ckers that we're good enough to get promoted. SR don't sell anyone. Unite them to be all conquering next season. 

If parsons hired are lawyers they'll be as useless as he is, let's be honest.

[Steeleye Saint]

6 minutes ago, Pamplemousse said:

If our appeal is dismissed, I'd be embarrassed if we tried to take it further.

The more I'm stewing this over, the more anger I feel towards our owners. We have to get them out ASAP.

Why the owners? It must be Tonda who authorised it and it's potentially cost the club millions.  Fuckwit. 

[Willo of Whiteley]

Tonda culpable (Telegraph)