General Football 23/24

[Kenneth]

Southampton kicked out of the playoff final and deducted 4 points from next season’s table for the spying drama.

[ChesterDave]

Appeal incoming, I am sure

[peterbread]

I know other teams accused them and only some were able to provide evidence due to when it happened.

[ChesterDave]

""Southampton admitted breaches of regulations requiring clubs to act with the utmost good faith and prohibiting the observation of another club’s training session within 72 hours of a scheduled match. The admitted breaches concern fixtures against Oxford United in December 2025, Ipswich Town in April 2026 and Middlesbrough in May 2026."

Well, I think the repeated instances will see an appeal fail

[Buzzo]

Wow.

About time there were some consequences within football. Hopefully the first of many.

[peterbread]

The EFL seems much better at acting quickly and punishing teams.

[Irishnev]

The EFL seems much better at acting quickly and punishing teams.

They admitted their guilt whereas City hired every lawyer known to man and denied and fought

[Cerbie]

They admitted their guilt whereas City hired every lawyer known to man and denied and fought

+ withheld evidence and obstructed the investigation….

[Exiled_red]

What do people think of the punishment? To me it seems harsh in comparison to what other punishments float around in football (admittedly for different things). Obviously what they have done is wrong and I didn't realise they had done it multiple times, but kind of feel for the players and fans who didn't know this was going on who have invested everything in a season only to have it taken away. I don't know what an appropriate punishment really is in this situation.

[Sus]

What's ironic is they lost the other games whose teams they were accused of spying on, apart from the Middlseborough game.

And the image from the Middlesborough spying, of a random analyst hiding beuind a tree with his mobile phone, is pretty comical

Punishment feels harsh, but maybe that will stop this happening in the future

[ChesterDave]

I find the grounds for appeal that it is far more severe punishment than any other penalty imposed on a team. Well yeah, and the potential reward for success was far greater than other instances teams have been punished for too!

[peterbread]

Things could get messier after Southamptons punishment.

Millwall and Wrexham are considering their legal options after confirmation that Southampton have been expelled from Saturday’s Championship playoff final and replaced by the beaten semi-finalists Middlesbrough.

[Buzzo]

How does it impact Millwall and Wrexham? Because they admitted to 2 other times they spied?

There is a point at which ‘**** off this is the decision’ has to be the message sent out.

[labourRed]

The self anointed potential Balon d'or winner looks likely to miss out on the World Cup.

[Buzzo]

That’s a wild decision to be fair. He should definitely be in the squad.

Among quite a few fairly wild decisions. Some of the selections are mind boggling.