soapster
Striker
lots of ifs. the fact is southampton cheated and not for the first time. that to me is the end of case.Whether Southampton actually benefited from the spying is irrelevant. That’s the part many people seem to miss. The issue is that they spied in the first place, so it’s reasonable to infer they believed it gave them an advantage.
The judgement had to conclude Southampton gained an unfair advantage and, in doing so, cheated us out of the final. That’s why we progress. It’s really not complicated — read the full judgement, because that’s essentially what it says.
My own view is that people keep arguing you don’t gain an advantage from watching training sessions. But Southampton’s coach chose to do it at least three times, so he clearly thought it was worthwhile and beneficial to them.
And the argument that we dominated Southampton in the first game but failed to take our chances, therefore proving they gained no benefit, makes no sense. By that logic, would cheating only have been proven if they’d beaten us 5-0?
No one can know exactly how they benefited. Maybe they saw a set-piece routine we would otherwise have scored from. Maybe they noticed Hackney wasn’t training and adjusted their setup accordingly to limit our threat. It’s all beside the point.
They cheated. Simple as that and we HAD to progress.
THEY ARE CHEATS AND AS THE SAYING GOES, CHEATS SHOULD NEVER PROSPER.