What if we'd finished second, a few points ahead of third....

[benjii]

and all of this had come out after the play-offs started?

 

WTF would they have done?!?!?

[Osvaldorama]

A fine and 6 points suspended. 

[skintsaint]

Well, we wouldn't have been scouting Boro in the semi-final so that we would have got nothing. Oxford and Ipswich didn't even know we were doing it till the whistleblower came out.

But if it did somehow come out, I would expect they would not have rushed the decision before the playoff final. Guess they would have given us a 4-point deduction and a fine for next time we were in the EFL.

[RedArmy]

3 minutes ago, skintsaint said:

Well, we wouldn't have been scouting Boro in the semi-final so that we would have got nothing. Oxford and Ipswich didn't even know we were doing it till the whistleblower came out.

But if it did somehow come out, I would expect they would not have rushed the decision before the playoff final. Guess they would have given us a 4-point deduction and a fine for next time we were in the EFL.

Ipswich might have as we would have kept them out of the top 2 and they had some proof or suspicions. 

But you’d like to think they’re not massive cunts like Boro

[revolution saint]

13 minutes ago, benjii said:

and all of this had come out after the play-offs started?

 

WTF would they have done?!?!?

Ask Middlesbrough and done whatever Steve Gibson decided?

[stknowle]

Would’ve been ok I reckon, Big fine and likely suspended points penalty possibly bigger than the one we got. 6 maybe. It’s fact we were caught doing it whilst in a k.o competition. There’s precedent for getting chucked out of those as the punishment. It’s why - whilst my gut instinct told me we wouldn’t get thrown out because of the disproportionate ultra punitive effect - I always had a nagging worry that we would.  

On another note, I think we should’ve played the final, with the investigation/hearing being conducted in the usual timescales ,us being retrospectively denied promotion if we won it, and Hull being awarded promotion instead.

Oh well, water under the fucking bridge now but still got a weird numb feeling about this whole embarrassing, tawdry episode. Bring on the head rolling.

Edited 5 hours ago by stknowle

[benjii]

22 minutes ago, stknowle said:

Would’ve been ok I reckon, Big fine and likely suspended points penalty possibly bigger than the one we got. 6 maybe. It’s fact we were caught doing it whilst in a k.o competition. There’s precedent for getting chucked out of those as the punishment. It’s why - whilst my gut instinct told me we wouldn’t get thrown out because of the disproportionate ultra punitive effect - I always had a nagging worry that we would.  

On another note, I think we should’ve played the final, with the investigation/hearing being conducted in the usual timescales ,us being retrospectively denied promotion if we won it, and Hull being awarded promotion instead.

Oh well, water under the fucking bridge now but still got a weird numb feeling about this whole embarrassing, tawdry episode. Bring on the head rolling.

Yep, we should have made sure the process dragged out longer.

[James G]

I wonder if we got 6 points deducted for spying on Ipswich, then two points added on for spying on Oxford because they found that funny 

[BotleySaint]

28 minutes ago, revolution saint said:

Ask Middlesbrough and done whatever Steve Gibson decided?

Exactly this. If Middlesborough didn't have such close links to the EFL then I reckon we'd have got a fine and points deducted. But they wanted Middlesborough there. It doesn't make sense to anyone; since it's not fair on Wrexham or whomever else may be eligible. And Hull should have been automatically promoted if we were expelled. They might even taken legal action if they lose.

But no, a team that lost gets the second chance. Because the CEO of Middlesborough is in the EFL board? Probably.

[trousers]

Yeah, this was one of the hypotheticals I pondered upon yesterday in the main expulsion thread... so, effectively, if we had benefited more from 'Spygate' and finished in the top two, we'd have been punished much less... go figure.... 

[James G]

1 minute ago, BotleySaint said:

Exactly this. If Middlesborough didn't have such close links to the EFL then I reckon we'd have got a fine and points deducted. But they wanted Middlesborough there. It doesn't make sense to anyone; since it's not fair on Wrexham or whomever else may be eligible. And Hull should have been automatically promoted if we were expelled. They might even taken legal action if they lose.

But no, a team that lost gets the second chance. Because the CEO of Middlesborough is in the EFL board? Probably.

I don't think that, so much

I think they guided the narrative, public opinion and also the punishment with their press release. We were stuck between a rock and a hard place because we had broken the rules. We could have played hardball from the get go but it was handled terribly from our perspective. We got walked over

[BotleySaint]

13 minutes ago, James G said:

I don't think that, so much

I think they guided the narrative, public opinion and also the punishment with their press release. We were stuck between a rock and a hard place because we had broken the rules. We could have played hardball from the get go but it was handled terribly from our perspective. We got walked over

Probably due to the echo chamber of the internet - I firmly believe that if the Saints CEO was on the EFL board our punishment would have been different. Unfortunately, consciously or unconsciously, there was bias in this case.

It's just the way of the world.