Saints Expelled from Playoffs

[EBS1980]

3 minutes ago, spyinthesky said:

Suspended sentence? Warning?

So being kicked out seems excessive now in comparison then?

[Fabrice29]

So our guilty behaviour the moment the allegations appeared and the non existent media strategy and odd behaviour at St Mary’s on Tuesday wasn’t because we’re unbelievably professional then?

 

[Holmes_and_Watson]

26 minutes ago, whelk said:

I will be slightly happier if the whistleblower is assassinated 

I know where we can get a grassy knoll, and a lone intern, if that helps.

#jokingbantz

[SNSUN]

Just now, sockeye said:

Is the loophole having to play Sekou Mara for a place in the final?

Strike partnership with Damion Downs. 

[OnceaSaintalwaysaSaint]

4 minutes ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

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

And I'm sure he did .... and I'm guessing along with every other club in the league. I'm certain we're not alone doing this.

Where do we go from here? SR needs to say no-one in the team leaves. We can show everyone we're good enough to be promoted in our own right. If possible, I'd even keep Tonda.

[SNSUN]

I blame Leeds. Bastards did it first and we're paying for it. 😜

[die Mannyschaft]

Club have completely lied and misleading the fans. Should have admitted it before 1st let. Owners, coaches and all involved need to leave the club tonight.

Selling the final tickets while knowing they spied on at least two teams and admitted it to ELF while no statement to club is outrageous. 

Boro are on EFL board to, legal team couldn't get a fan off a charge for bringing a can of beer into ground.

I fully expect this was known and authorised from top to bottom.

[Osvaldorama]

Ah well. 
 

Fuck it. Championship is more fun anyway. 

[vectraman]

Next seasons kit is out with our new sponsor…

Edited 1 hour ago by vectraman

[CB Fry]

 

[Sergei Gotsmanov]

2 minutes ago, Football Special said:

We have been well and truly done up by the Middlesbrough mafia, they'll know most teams involved in this sort of thing and we were fucking stupid enough to walk into the trap. 

 Needs a proper investigation into:

> the analyst who joined us from Boro then left earlier this season. They knew we'd be there. A badly dressed kid with an iphone learning fuck all 

> the board member at Boro on EFL board 

> orchestrated media campaign that lost us the case , I've never seen anything like it (compare Henry Winter vs Leeds ) 

> most draconian punishment possible for a new offence with no precedent 

Fuck the EFL and Middlesbrough 

We are surrounded in shame but we should be scrutinising the conduct of others. What does Henry Winter really think? why has his opinion changed so dramatically. Was he put up to it? Is that in the spirit of the  game....

Lets take a few of these people with us....

 

[Convict Colony]

It seems like Parsons was going for the fairplay mea culpa approach and no one told him how litigious

gibson was and to not admit anything.

 

[Hawkswood]

Just wondering, if by some miracle the decision is reversed ( cant see it by the way), how I would still feel about going to Wembley to cheer them on. More so, how I would feel if they won.

Ive got a feeling it would be hollow.

[SWLondon Saint]

1 minute ago, Gloucester Saint said:

That’s not how it is when there’s been a serious fuck up at an organisation because I’ve had to clean them up. Stay away from aggrieved/aggregated parties until facts are fully established and if it’s going to a tribunal/panel keep your fucking powder dry until that convenes.

At least might have limited the damage even though it was very unlikely to be his fault in the first place. Tonda and Spors will down the road but to have fuelled the flames further in the media was stupid in the extreme. This is a guy who has probably dealt with James Dyson’s IP at some stage. 

I actually agree on this, if it's wasn't provable, admit nothing, let the smallest fish fry and pay them off through back channels at some later date. As I said, I would put good money that everyone does the whole spying thing, just competently, and it's just us that got landed with the booby prize when the music stopped.

[Lone ranger]

5 minutes ago, Paulwantsapint81 said:

How the fuck do we explain to young kids what has happened 

 

My 4 year old has been getting excited about watching Saturday with me & his friends at school & their families but we have to cancel on them

—————————————

Why is Southampton Football Club hiring a spy who makes Johnny English look like James Bond?

You tell them as any parent would that even good people sometimes do bad things and if you do something bad it usually affects a lot of other people too. You can also add that when you do bad stuff you should own up, say sorry and beg for forgiveness. Simples. 

[sockeye]

Just now, SNSUN said:

I blame Leeds. Bastards did it first and we're paying for it. 😜

I blame Bristol City and Ipswich. We win those games, we never fuck ourselves over by sending Salt to Middlesbrough.

[SNSUN]

[GDog07]

4 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

load of bollox

Not to credit him as ITK.

But somehow he posted 8hrs ago with the correct outcome of the hearing, Tonda incriminated, but wrong with the postponement (may still happen)

[Holmes_and_Watson]

19 minutes ago, Saint_clark said:

Ok mate. I'm just further ahead in the grieving process as I had accepted it might be happening earlier in the week.

Where are you on the scale now? It will be nice to know when acceptance kicks in 🙂

 

[Hawkswood]

Just now, Osvaldorama said:

Ah well. 
 

Fuck it. Championship is more fun anyway. 

Thats what I said !!

Was looking forward to the day out though.

[RedArmy]

1 minute ago, Osvaldorama said:

Ah well. 
 

Fuck it. Championship is more fun anyway. 

Yeah just wish they’d have let us play the final first and then taken promotion away. That would have been the dream. 
 

Day out at Wembley and championship again next season. 
 

 

[Convict Colony]

1 minute ago, Hawkswood said:

Just wondering, if by some miracle the decision is reversed ( cant see it by the way), how I would still feel about going to Wembley to cheer them on. More so, how I would feel if they won.

Ive got a feeling it would be hollow.

I would love it purely to see boro fans cry and i would admit i am feeding off those tears

[Saint_clark]

1 minute ago, Holmes_and_Watson said:

Where are you on the scale now? It will be nice to know when acceptance kicks in 🙂

 

Depression. I'm at the point of wondering whether I even want to support this club under Sports Republic after the shit we've been put through. 

[Mr X]

So is it literally fine to spy as long as it's not within 72 hours of the game? Or would we be getting the same punishment regardless? 

[skintsaint]

4 minutes ago, Typical_boro said:

If I were you, I would be aiming all my anger at your own club,

not read the last few pages then 😅

[Holmes_and_Watson]

20 minutes ago, trousers said:

Didn't someone post on here recently that we haven't had a 'Compliance Officer' in post since at least the start of the year, and that this is technically in breach of corporate regulations? And that it would have been the responsibility of the said Compliance Officer to ensure all departments and personnel were following the EFL regulations to the letter? Could this be the reason Tonda was seemingly blissfully unaware of the 72 hour rule? 

If true, it's more self inflicted all the time.

[Midfield_General]

41 minutes ago, skintsaint said:

New 3 person panel.

Apparently the new panel is Steve Gibson, Mike Dean and John Westwood. 

Parsons and his crack legal team reported to be 'confident'.

[Dr Who?]

14 minutes ago, Sheaf Saint said:

We admitted it. No proof required.

This is not technically true but I get your point. If someone admits to murdering someone to protect someone else the police will still need evidence. But in this case it is not quite murder, even if it feels like it! 

[CylonKing]

3 minutes ago, Holmes_and_Watson said:

Where are you on the scale now? It will be nice to know when acceptance kicks in 🙂

 

Never blue, not in a million years! 😁

[SWLondon Saint]

Don't feed the troll guys, just wait for him to be banned. 

[Lone ranger]

25 minutes ago, Saint86 said:

So no proof? Given this reported story about parsons admitting everything to Boro / EFL, it sounds like he's taken the same approach in the hearing. Madness.

No it’s a tiny bit of honesty and integrity in the midst of a disgraceful shambles. 

[die Mannyschaft]

5 minutes ago, Osvaldorama said:

Ah well. 
 

Fuck it. Championship is more fun anyway. 

Be leaque 1. We were diabolical until the spying no wonder we got 21 unbeaten.  

[sockeye]

2 minutes ago, sockeye said:

watch anyling  and Morris grace the Wembley turf in the cup final we had no chance of making. 

Freudian slip.

[Harold K Steptoe]

Just cheat financially from now on, the rewards are better and punishment is less

[Eric The Red]

25 minutes ago, skintsaint said:

Manager appointed 15th Jan, game on the 26th. Enough time to check on them without going to 72 hours.

Exactly, we could have checked them out well before Dec 24th, also they had played at least one game under the (old) new guy so just stupid and pointless all round if we broke the 72 hour rule for that bunch 

[benjii]

1 minute ago, Convict Colony said:

 

He's so camp. No wonder they love him.

[DrSuess1979]

1 minute ago, die Mannyschaft said:

Be leaque 1. We were diabolical until the spying no wonder we got 21 unbeaten.  

The games we “Spied”on we didn’t win ? 

[Osvaldorama]

1 minute ago, die Mannyschaft said:

Be leaque 1. We were diabolical until the spying no wonder we got 21 unbeaten.  

Grow up. The spying made fuck all difference and everyone does it anyway 

 

 

[Sheaf Saint]

The OS has still got our next match listed as being against Hull this Saturday. Not a single mention anywhere of today's events on the site or on SM.

Totally fucking unacceptable IMO.

[Lord Duckhunter]

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.

[Nolan]

I am grasping at straws here, but the EFL are treating the play offs like a separate competition in places. But conjoining the league and the play-offs in others.

If the play offs are separate then the punishment specifically for this competition should only be with regards to Middlesbrough, and the other charges added on Sunday should not be a part of this judgment as they relate to a separate competition.

[OnceaSaintalwaysaSaint]

In all this I think Luke Ayling has put it best:

"I'm now d-d-d-delighted to be g-g-g-"

Yeah, shut up you prick.

[Dr. Kucho]

This might sounds silly but I feel for this Salt guy. He’s a young guy, an intern and was told to spy on opponents training sessions. 

Probably desperate for the job so he can get on the football career ladder and work his way up. Now after this his career is likely ruined before it even started. He will always be known as the spy kid. 

You could say, he should have said no to spying, but when you are young and want the job it’s hard to say no. 

As For Tonda saying he sanctioned this because it’s done in Europe. Didn’t  he think to ask if it’s allowed here, and didn’t anyone think to tell him it’s illegal here? Most of the coaching staff are English ffs. 

Just when you start to think, after years of SR fuck ups, it’s finally going the right way this happens. Now we are likely to lose a good manager and a sports director who has done a good job in finding good players. And SR don’t have a great track record in finding good staff. 

Pissed of with the club for this. 

[Midfield_General]

They didn't need a whistleblower — according to the Telegraph, Parsons just fessed up to Gibson on the spot in front of a room full of people before we'd even had the chance to get a legal team on board. 

Our CEO, ladies and gentlemen 

fuck me

[die Mannyschaft]

8 minutes ago, OnceaSaintalwaysaSaint said:

And I'm sure he did .... and I'm guessing along with every other club in the league. I'm certain we're not alone doing this.

Where do we go from here? SR needs to say no-one in the team leaves. We can show everyone we're good enough to be promoted in our own right. If possible, I'd even keep Tonda.

SR need to leave I cant belive they didn't know, and who approved all the lying PR to fans.

[sockeye]

I found it interesting that the two other clubs raised in the hearing are not going to be in the league next year (Oxford and Ipswich).

[Miltonaggro]

1 minute ago, benjii said:

He's so camp. No wonder they love him.

Rumour is he was the sperm donor for 28000 of them, The Boys From Boro...

[trousers]

35 minutes ago, skintsaint said:

Apparently Tonda didn't realise it was against the rules.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2026/05/19/spygate-scandal-english-football-southampton-middlesbrough/

 

As I'd hoped.... doesn't alter how livid I am about it all, but that's "less bad" than if he'd done it whilst knowing the rules. 

 

[grezz]

2 minutes ago, SWLondon Saint said:

Don't feed the troll guys, just wait for him to be banned. 

Nah don't ban them. They won the day and that's how it is. We cheated, we take the medicine on the chin and we wish them well in the final. We're Saints. We're better than petty bitterness.

[Saint_clark]

1 minute ago, Sheaf Saint said:

The OS has still got our next match listed as being against Hull this Saturday. Not a single mention anywhere of today's events on the site or on SM.

Totally fucking unacceptable IMO.

The club are just burying their head in the sand. Can't believe they haven't made some form of announcement to the fans.