u/Zach-dalt

'The club has released the following statement...

Middlesbrough FC notes the decision of the Disciplinary Commission not to permit the club to intervene in the proceedings brought by the EFL against Southampton FC.

The club regrets that outcome, given we are directly affected by the matters under consideration and hold relevant factual evidence as to the events in question and their competitive impact.

The conduct at issue, namely the observation and recording of our training session ahead of a fixture of such significance, goes to the heart of sporting integrity and fair competition. In these circumstances, the only appropriate response is a sporting sanction which would prevent Southampton FC from participating in the EFL Championship play-off final.

We remain hopeful that the EFL, as regulator, will pursue such a sanction before the Disciplinary Commission in order to protect the integrity of the game, safeguard all member clubs, and deter any attempt in the future to obtain an unfair and unlawful advantage in pursuit of promotion to the Premier League.

The club reserves all its legal rights.'

I recently read a thread in here discussing how while in certain areas of Japan that are especially overcrowded with tourists, a lot of the locals and the local business owners are pretty sick or at least tired of tourists, even those that are pretty well-behaved, but in areas that don't get quite as many, or many at all, the locals are even happy to see tourists, so I was wondering what sort of places those would be?

I know this is steering dangerously close to 'tourist wants to avoid tourists', but think it'd be somewhat of a win-win situation- not adding to the over-tourism in certain packed areas, while also visiting somewhere where the locals are more pleased (and less jaded) with tourists, which would also give myself peace of mind as I am very conscious of what others think of me (but that's an issue for a different day! 😅)

It felt like after 23/24 and 24/25 when all six promoted teams got relegated from the Premier League with none of them getting past 26-points, there was a lot of chatter around the gap between the league's getting too big to assail, and you were hard to pushed to find 25/26 predictions that had more than one side staying up, if any

But since then Sunderland are closer to the Champions League spots than relegation, and Leeds are safe with three games to spare, with each side taking slightly different approaches to survival

So particularly to Coventry, Ipswich, and playoff team fans, but also in general, do you think the promoted Championship teams should be giving Prem survival a much stronger shot than Luton, Burnley, Sheffield United, Southampton, Ipswich, and Leicester did?

• Sunday 10th May - 3pm
• Wembley
• Matches this season: BW 0 - 2 Rochdale, Rochdale 4 - 1 BW