Southampton kickball team (ND)

[jamcg]

Not a football fan, but being from Teesside the spying incident is all anyone has spoke about for weeks. Well it’s definitely backfired on them, they’ve been removed from the playoff final

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/ar ... y2pnpqjl7o

Glad to see a punishment handed out that should make people think twice about spitting in the future

[dinny_g]

Unbelievably hard on the fans and the players but probably the best outcome.

I see a lot of law cases coming up.

[Brannen]

As a Pompey fan, I find it extremely funny. I was pretty surprised by the punishment tbh

[dinny_g]

I guess it's been judges as systemic as it comes after Leeds a few year ago (when the league went "Absolutely NO!") and the fact they did it multiple times shows it to be a wilful breaking of the rules.

The lad who was caught had a change of disguise stashed in a nearby sports club and he tried to change his clothes to flee.

All very unseemly really

anyway, in more important news...

ARSENAL ARE CHAMPIONS!!!!!!!!!!

[JonMad]

I guess it's been judges as systemic as it comes after Leeds a few year ago (when the league went "Absolutely NO!") and the fact they did it multiple times shows it to be a wilful breaking of the rules.

The lad who was caught had a change of disguise stashed in a nearby sports club and he tried to change his clothes to flee.

All very unseemly really

anyway, in more important news...

ARSENAL ARE CHAMPIONS!!!!!!!!!!

And Spurs might get relegated yet (as an occasional Spurs fan).

My boss supports Ipswich so it's all been about the Championship these last few months. Harsh penalty but probably fair. Kind of feel sorry for the intern guy, apparently, who was told to go and do it.

[dinny_g]

Oh yeah, there's definitely someone reasonably high up who ordered this - maybe not the manager (who might not have known for plausible deniability) but someone.

they need to be rooted out - as you ay, it's not the Intern guys fault

[mik]

I know nothing about football.

Is this training that takes place in publicly viewable locations, but there is an agreement that other clubs won’t peek? Or is it people covertly entering closed-to-the-public sites?

[dinny_g]

It's a specific rule, rather than an agreement - you're not supposed to try to gain an unfair advantage using this sort of thing. Leeds were caught a few years ago and the rules are clear.

But given this guy was hiding behind a tree with multiple cameras, including one livestreaming back to home base, and had a change of clothes in a bug out bag stashed nearby, they knew they were up to no good.

"Section 127 of the regulations says: “Without prejudice to the requirements of Regulation 3.4 (that each Club shall behave towards each other Club with the utmost good faith), no Club shall directly or indirectly observe (or attempt to observe) another Club’s training session in the period of 72 hours prior to any match scheduled to be played between those respective Clubs.”"

[duncs500]

I think it's a pretty harsh penalty. I know Southampton still had to beat Hull, but they would have had a good shot at doing that. They lost a good shot at I think something like £110m as a minimum, there's an argument to say it's one of the biggest sanctions in sporting history (when you add in the 4 points deduction next season it's even worse).

In terms of how much they gained from it, it's really probably very little. Of the three occasions they've been caught for / admitted to, they didn't actually win any of the matches! You can of course watch the games of your opponent and get most of what you need from that.

So I think it's harsh, but at the end of the day it's a clear rule broken that didn't have a precedent set in terms of punishment. You'd have to be incredibly stupid to take a risk on being the one to find out what the penalty would be. You have to say that no team will be looking to do it again giving the massive risk vs marginal gain, so in that respect the punishment does its job.

Still subject to appeal mind you.

[Swervin_Mervin]

I think it's a load of overblown nonsense. Maybe that's growing up following F1, where teams do anything they possibly can to see what their rivals are up to. A bit of sporting espionage adds to the interest.

But rules is rules I suppose.

[jamcg]

Thing is, if they punished it by way of a fine, it sets out that the practice is legal for a price. I think the appeal may cancel the -4 points, but not the removal from the match- to overturn that would be a bit of an embarrassing look for the efl, and come across as weak.

And to answer the point of what you can gain from this, if you can see their training sessions, you can see how they’re planning to play set pieces against you, so you can then predict what they’ll do from a corner, or a feee kick etc, like if no.6 stands at front post they’re crossing to no.12 etc.

As for the f1 position, in 2008 McLaren were thrown out of the constructors championship for spying on Ferrari

[MikeHunt]

Adding to what jamcg said, the last game between Southampton and Boro was close to going to penalties, with the winning goal scored in addition time. Spying on penalty training is potentially a huge advantage.

[Swervin_Mervin]

Thing is, if they punished it by way of a fine, it sets out that the practice is legal for a price. I think the appeal may cancel the -4 points, but not the removal from the match- to overturn that would be a bit of an embarrassing look for the efl, and come across as weak.

And to answer the point of what you can gain from this, if you can see their training sessions, you can see how they’re planning to play set pieces against you, so you can then predict what they’ll do from a corner, or a feee kick etc, like if no.6 stands at front post they’re crossing to no.12 etc.

As for the f1 position, in 2008 McLaren were thrown out of the constructors championship for spying on Ferrari

Spygate isn't even remotely the same level.

[jamcg]