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While the FA’s Independent Disciplinary Commission’s investigation into the Southampton spying scandal is likely to be scrupulously impartial, Football Daily couldn’t help but wonder if assorted EFL blazers might have been pogoing in celebration to the post-punk stylings of Middlesbrough anthem Papa’s Got a Brand New Pigbag when Riley McGree fired his club in front at St Mary’s on Tuesday night. Unwittingly embroiled in an administrative mess that could scarcely be more absurd or ridiculous, a Boro win would have gone a long way towards helping the EFL temporarily sweep spygate under the rug. As luck would have it, Southampton came back to win the tie, so the options of just hitting them with a whacking great fine and/or points deduction should they be found guilty of espionage are no longer the only ones on the table. As things stand, Tonda Eckert’s team are off to play Hull City in a Wembley playoff final worth a gazillion pounds, but if Football Daily was Robbie Mustoe, Phil Stamp or any other Middlesbrough player, we wouldn’t be jetting off on our summer holidays just yet.
Since the spygate story broke last week, Southampton’s response has been to issue club statements that say little or nothing and plead for more time to get to the bottom of an unedifying matter that doesn’t seem even remotely complicated. They have neither admitted nor denied illegally spying on a Boro training session, but have repeatedly shoved their young head coach into hails of bullets under clear instructions not to discuss the only subject reporters are interested in asking him about. His latest press conference shut down abruptly when a crestfallen Eckert was advised to leave the room by a media handler after a journalist asked: “Are you a cheat?” One feels that whatever the answer to the question, the 33-year-old German must be seriously considering his position. “I will say something, but I just cannot say it now,” he told journalists minutes before his exit. “When the investigation is closed I will say something.”
