Saints Expelled from Playoffs

[S-Clarke]

7 minutes ago, trousers said:

Reading that, it's only just hit me that we haven't been fined at all. (If you don't count the potential loss of premier league revenue as a fine, per se). Isn't that a tad odd? It's almost as if the punishments have been contrived to match the EFL's desired outcome....

Someone also mentions this - 

2. It is likely that the sanctions already include a discount for the admission by Southampton of all charges. This means the starting point was potentially even higher - perhaps 1-2 more points or a fine as well.

I appreciate the EFL for being so reasonable.

[Nordic Saint]

2 minutes ago, The Wyvern said:

As stated above the punishment has matched exactly with what Middlesbrough asked for from the very start. That has to be pretty rare in such circumstances surely? Some coincidence that. Not a penny fined. 

Not really. Neil Bausor, Middlesbrough's Chief Executive, employed by Steve Gibson, represents the Championship on the EFL board.

[The Wyvern]

1 minute ago, Nordic Saint said:

Not really. Neil Bausor, Middlesbrough's Chief Executive, employed by Steve Gibson, represents the Championship on the EFL board.

Exactly. Gibson seems to have dictated all this from the very start. 

[Saint86]

11 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

 

I don't buy this as a reason for them to be unhappy, if we lost on Saturday there would be the same outcome - ditto if we didn't make the Top 6. This bit feels like nonsense.

 

They had a 50% chance at recovering 40% pay cuts... Which has been cost through no fault of their own, and despite frankly incredible sporting efforts... You can't see why they'd be pissed?

[davefizzy14]

2 minutes ago, The Wyvern said:

Exactly. Gibson seems to have dictated all this from the very start. 

Hopefully we can use this in the appeal. 

[S-Clarke]

2 minutes ago, Saint86 said:

They had a 50% chance at recovering 40% pay cuts... Which has been cost through no fault of their own, and despite frankly incredible sporting efforts... You can't see why they'd be pissed?

But they'd have left anyway had we not got promoted, and got that 40% pay cut back which they cry about. And the final wasn't this cut and dried result either, Hull could have beaten us.

They'll be pissed, of course, but crying about not getting a pay rise on promotion feels a weird angle. They'd have known that when they signed.

[SaintBobby]

It seems insane. Sure we’re guilty. We cheated. But it’s like getting capital punishment for shoplifting. (Or shoplifting maybe 3 times).

[Owen The Saints]

6 minutes ago, SaintBobby said:

It seems insane. Sure we’re guilty. We cheated. But it’s like getting capital punishment for shoplifting. (Or shoplifting maybe 3 times).

We've cheated 3 times by our own admission. Changes everything from a one-off to a culture. Fuck the final, fuck the points deduction, if I was a 1st team player I'd be telling the club to stick their contract somewhere where the sun doesn't shine. As it is it's 50/50 I'll re-new my season ticket. If our best players do leave over this, I won't be attending any more games. There is something badly wrong at SFC.

[S-Clarke]

4 minutes ago, SaintBobby said:

It seems insane. Sure we’re guilty. We cheated. But it’s like getting capital punishment for shoplifting. (Or shoplifting maybe 3 times).

Yeah, that's where it doesn't sit with me. If this happened in the regular season, I'd accept a points deduction and fine as a fair punishment if found guilty. The angle they are using here as I see it is that the playoffs are a cup competition, so separate from the league and must be dealt with differently (using the Swindon example). 

It feels like they've tied themselves up in knots, caught between two scenarios (this has never happened before) and made a right royal mess of it.

One of the rules we breached, not acting in good faith, was around when Leeds did this. That was the rule Leeds breached and they had a fine. So, how has the 'not acting in good' faith charge resulted in this, given that Leeds just got a fine? I understand there is the additional 'Spying' rule now, but we were charged with both -  I'm confused how the charges stack up and what punishment is tied in with which rule breaking.

[Saint Fan CaM]

Interesting reading through the thread. Many are saying sack Tonda etc., with others suggesting they’ll walk away from the club because of the ‘cheating’. The punishment is undoubtedly harsh and assuming the appeal is not successful, surely we the innocent supporters should feel a high level of indignation with the outcome? Surely now is the time to form a close huddle with the club and its staff in continued support and stick two proverbial fingers up at the EFL? “We will prevail” sort of position.

When I look back over the stewardship of SR, I cannot help but reflect on one disaster after another. Lack of cohesive player and coaching appointments. Embarrassing season and relegation from the Prem. And now this, with potential further decline a result of sullied reputation, lowered morale, player departures and a further reduction of squad quality. If you wanted to fuck a football club over in a slow death process, SR have seemingly developed and executed the blueprint perfectly.

Parsons head should role - he’s overseen much of the decline and his performance versus Gibson confirms his incompetence in a senior managerial capacity.

Edited 1 hour ago by Saint Fan CaM
Typo

[Saint Paul C]

The expulsion of Southampton from the play-offs is more than just an embarrassing sporting failure, it’s a textbook breakdown in internal controls and corporate governance. Basic compliance, oversight, and risk management procedures clearly failed somewhere within the executive structure of the club.

At a professional football club operating at this level, there should be multiple layers of review to prevent exactly this kind of scenario. The fact it still happened points directly to incompetence or negligence at the executive level.

Supporters, players, and staff are now the ones paying the price for failures made in the boardroom.

Accountability has to mean something, and in any properly governed organisation, senior executives responsible for this mess should be removed from their positions immediately.

[maxi_sopez]

I’m obviously gutted about playoffs. But what really really hurts/makes me feel sick is the long term consequences, the ripple effect will be huge.

- manager and staff sacked

- no director of football 

- all of the players wanting to leave.

- club reputation in tatters

 

we will now be stuck in the championship doldrums for a long time (if we’re lucky).

 

all for a totally pointless thing to do. Which gained us nothing. The risk v reward is inexcusable.

Tonda great coach - but genuinely might have fucked the club for years and years.

[Saint_clark]

I know it's still raw, but I'm honestly feeling like I won't even really be following the club from here on out. I'm thinking ahead to next season and trying to imagine watching the games or even checking the results and I just don't imagine myself giving a shit at all.

[Jack]

Think there are more twists and turns yet. It’s Wednesday morning, there’s an appeal Wednesday evening, I just can’t see that the losing semi finalists will be playing at Wembley on Saturday afternoon when their 38000 tickets have already been sold to the winning semi finalists, with the only legitimate finalists being punished by the shambles of the whole situation. It’s not right. 
 

I’m disgusted by the whole thing, angry with the club, but it doesn’t feel like it’s done yet. 

[Saint_clark]

4 minutes ago, Jack said:

Think there are more twists and turns yet. It’s Wednesday morning, there’s an appeal Wednesday evening, I just can’t see that the losing semi finalists will be playing at Wembley on Saturday afternoon when their 38000 tickets have already been sold to the winning semi finalists, with the only legitimate finalists being punished by the shambles of the whole situation. It’s not right. 
 

I’m disgusted by the whole thing, angry with the club, but it doesn’t feel like it’s done yet. 

Only thing I will say is that the argument of "they won't overturn it now, it's too disruptive etc" holds no weight. Throwing us out when we'd sold out, 4 days to the game, was disruptive and they still did it. 

You can argue that we have no chance based on what we did etc but to say they won't do it purely because it's too much hassle is wrong.

[Jack]

18 minutes ago, Saint_clark said:

Only thing I will say is that the argument of "they won't overturn it now, it's too disruptive etc" holds no weight. Throwing us out when we'd sold out, 4 days to the game, was disruptive and they still did it. 

You can argue that we have no chance based on what we did etc but to say they won't do it purely because it's too much hassle is wrong.

Yeah I agree, they don’t give a fuck about the disruption. If the appeal is upheld, they’ve got to try and sell Boro our 38k tickets on Thursday and Friday. I just feel for Hull in all this, it’s a shit show. Putting a losing semi finalist back in is bollocks. 
 

It’d be absolutely ridiculous to overturn yesterday’s decision based on the disruption caused, but clearly we’d welcome it based on how severe the punishment is. What a mess. 

[James]

52 minutes ago, Saint_clark said:

I know it's still raw, but I'm honestly feeling like I won't even really be following the club from here on out. I'm thinking ahead to next season and trying to imagine watching the games or even checking the results and I just don't imagine myself giving a shit at all.

I think that it’s natural to want to disown the situation. I do agree though, how can the club expect us to continue to spend our hard earned on tickets, shirts, beers etc. when what we’ve watched this season was essentially all for nothing. The silence from the club is deafening, they need to say something. I had thought silence projected confidence, more likely at his point sheer incompetence. SR need to go, we need a fresh start away from their chaos. 

[OttawaSaint]

55 minutes ago, Saint_clark said:

I know it's still raw, but I'm honestly feeling like I won't even really be following the club from here on out. I'm thinking ahead to next season and trying to imagine watching the games or even checking the results and I just don't imagine myself giving a shit at all.

I feel the same.