There are a lot of words being spoken about the Championship play offs, but few of them are about the football itself and most of them articles from Teesside media outlets looking to stir up the flames with a series of speculative articles mostly with little based on actual fact.

The verdict on Spygate should be with us within the next 24 hours and the only thing that is certain about it, is that whatever it is, it is unlikely to stop the talking.

Most of it is coming from the Teesside media, Teessidelive seem to be the main protagonists as they are putting out stories seemingly on an hourly basis and the rhetoric is always the same, Southampton have to be thrown out and Middlesbrough have to be promoted to the Premier League.

They care little for the actual facts of the story and even less for the actual severity of the offence itself.

In their mind this is the most serious offence in football, they started their campaign with the claims that a man had been caught hiding in bushes with highly sophisticated surveillance equipment and even now it has been established it was a man with an i phone in full view 200 metres from the Boro training pitches, they have not changed their ranting, they care little for facts.

All they are concerned with is trying to influence the outcome of the verdict when it comes, by a series of demands about expulsion.

Southampton, both football club and media for their part have remained quiet, neither have sort to try and influence either the Independent Panel of the EFL by bombarding the media with fake news.

Indeed Tonda Eckert refuses to speak about it until the the verdict has been given and that is a good strategy.

On Tuesday the panel will give it's verdict followed by the EFL if it should be a verdict against Southampton giving their punishment, someone will be upset, probably Middlesbrough who whatever the verdict will be unhappy, their mind it does not matter about Southampton or Hull City, given that it is highly unlikely that the Play Off final will be called off, as it is probably not logistically possible to reschedule it, the only outcome they will accept is that they are promoted to the Premier League.

That is of course not going to happen, they will never accept that they were beaten fairly over two games, they will maintain that they had some sort of infallible plan they were working on in that training session that would have guaranteed victory.

Perhaps they had, but of they had come up with it 3 months ago, then they would not have been in this position now, as surely automatic promotion would have been guaranteed.

Via Reuters or Authors Own