Spygate / Championship Play Off Final

He will get a job abroad, its common practice in Europe according to Eckhert

 

The whatsapp chat that is basically a lot of this investigation from the sounds of things, looks like it could be unreal if it ever leaks out. One messaged described in the hearing between the coaches whatsapp group was back in December, was Will Salt (the spy/analyst) with his face AI replaced over the front of a solider in camo gear outside a training ground. The fella was only hired as head coach in November, there's no way this was lazy or unfortunate actions, they have been doing it since the fella was given the top job.

This is going to be a nightmare for the EFL & FA. Reports so far are Derby & Wrexham might be looking into legal action, similar for relegated sides and the Southampton players are looking into if they have legal grounds against their own club. This play off final week isnt going the way they thought!

 

Very messy all round.

Got to feel for Hull in a way preparing for such a huge game and not knowing for certain yet who they are playing in 3 days time.

I hope Hull win whoever they play.

 

Well done to the EFL in handing out a decent punishment to a bunch of cheating twats what did think was suitable a nice slap on the wrists a big fine then off into the sunset to earn 200 million pound ????

 

I reckon Hull will do it now, they'll have been training all week at least, Sky were saying Middlesborough only go back to training today, will have a few days then travel down on Friday.

In todays findings so far, Eckert was the one sending the plans through whatsapp and most the jokes around it that have come out laughing at it all for months in chats. Two analysts on staff were the ones that came forward once they were caught and gave the whatsapp info to the investigation. The two have said they are remorseful for their actions and were pushed into the spying missions, it's sounding like there were a lot more than the 3 they've admitted to yesterday. Also, the Ipswich spying was done the day before the game at St Marys, Ipswich travelled down early and trained at Eastleighs complex, the spy was asked to go down in a full Eastleigh kit and just roam around pretending to be a non-league player. There were pictures shown of him in the kit at the training session.

Eckert sounds done.

 

Yeah how many other training sessions have they spied on to gain an advantage i know it says just the 3 but got a feeling its gonna be a lot more and one of them was a direct rival for promotion .............

 

Had Ipswich lost there last game it would have made a major difference and if there isore games that come out that they have had folk spying then the points deduction should be even higher ............glad the EFL have gone full gung ho on them puts a huge marker down on clubs trying to cheat to get an advantage

 

Theres a Twitter page called SaintExtra that are basically just copying what The Athletic are finding out as the investigation is going on.

Southampton board sound like they have made their minds up on Eckert and he is done there. Sky saying that Southampton are supposed to be training this morning but a few players at the minute are questionable as they are looking into legal action against the club. Even better, they were planning on having Will Salt spy there for another day until he was spotted and shouted at by Boro staff members, Salt then ran into the golf course next door and he ran into the toilets, changed his t-shirt, put a cap on and then ran through the clubhouse doors onto the course and then ran back to his car.

 

EFL have announced that the play off final kick off will be 3:30 if it's Hull vs Boro, 4:30 if it's Hull vs Saints.

They need to have this ironed out quickly, absolute farce for the fans.

 

Let’s just think of the bloke doing the half and half scarves.

 

Still trying to work out why different kick off times depending on who is Hull's opponent

 

This is a complete joke. Hull fans have planned for 4.30pm for the last week. An hours not much but if you are running coach trips etc you'd want to factor in enough time so now you are going to look at getting your coach and it's passengers all setting off an hour earlier, times how many coaches will be going down which will be hundreds I would expect.

A complete farce.

 

My thoughts on the removal of Southampton as a punishment.

This clearly appears to be an extremely harsh punishment due to the reward that is involved. However if say Salford did this against Grimsby and were kicked out of the league two play offs would anyone say that was harsh? The same offence with the same punishment but due to it being 2 leagues below the reward clearly is less. This is how to judge the matter as the punishment in theory should be the same regardless of which play off you are taking part in.

The EFL have already kicked a team out of a competition for breaking rules (Swindon Town) and reinstated the team they beat (Luton Town) who ended up winning the whole competition in the EFL Trophy so they have done similar before.

 

"Southampton sources felt the Spygate hearing should have taken place after the play-off final, rather than being expedited by the EFL. They thought there were too many rules that had no defined sanctions, which left too much open to interpretation, and if the rules had been clearer, the incident would have been resolved more speedily. They also pointed out that Southampton put in one of their worst performances in recent months against Middlesbrough in the first leg, which suggested that no sporting advantage had been gained. (The Athletic)"

Basically Southampton think the rules are too unclear and it should have had time after the play offs to be looked into. Utter bollocks. If they had gone up, that entire campaign becomes a farce, memories for the fan become a joke and irrelevant.

Southampton players who would have "earned" promotion and a what 30-35%ish wage rise at worst would now be fuming at the team for doing this and probably taking legal action anyway. If they had waited and Southampton had gone up, this would have been a bigger fiasco the longer it went on. And now they are saying ahh well we only drew so it didn't matter anyway. What a complete and utter joke of a club they are sounding like the more and more comes out. Boro are planning on suing Southampton regardless of the results of the weekend says Athletic. Southampton players found out on TV or by text when the news broke on TV, nobody from the club kept the players up to date during any of this. A final outcome will be announced this evening.

 

This quote from a Flynn Downes in December really has more meaning now

 

Josh Windass (Wrexham) thinks that the playoffs should be replayed with Southampton booted out and Wrexham (who finished 7th) taking their place. Didn't someone suggest earlier in the thread that this was just a way to get Wrexham into the play offs

 

Some of the "proposals" by some are daft. Millwall to re enter the play offs to play Middlesbrough. I mean that could see Millwall face Hull at team who Hull have already eliminated.

The EFL are in a position now where that if anyone other than Hull get promoted the legal challenges will come from all quarters. If Southampton are let back in and get promoted, Hull, Middlesbrough, Wrexham, etc are all going kick off.
If Middlesborough get promoted then Hull are going to kick off.

If Southampton get promoted it's worth noting that they will them fall outside EFL jurdistriction for at least 1 season meaning the EFL will have no power at all.

It's a mess that people would probably accept if it were a league 2 side, but due to the monies involved the same "offense" committed in the championship means expulsion for the same issue in the same circumstances in a different league elevates the financial difference from say a million, to hundreds of millions.

 

Me i think Southampton should be relegated and us,Stevenage and the losers of this weekends final should go into a round robin event