The EFL finally “got” Southall. Why did they punish him so leniently?
24th April 2023
If you are a fan of Charlton, Rochdale or Birmingham City, you will have no problem identifying the geezer on the left. Our old ‘friend’ Matt Southall has finally had his collar felt by the EFL for his involvement in the failed takeover at Birmingham.
“Mr Southall also accepted a charge of Misconduct after admitting to signing a false declaration regarding his role as a Relevant Person under EFL Regulations.“ says the EFL statement.
And the penalty?
“Mr Southall is now prohibited from being a Relevant Person for a period of six months, three months of which are to be suspended until the end of the 2023/24 season.”
There has been consternation among Charlton and Rochdale fans at the apparent leniency of the punishment, which appears not to take into account any previous misdemeanours. Charlton Supporters Trust has already started to seek an explanation from the EFL.
So far, so bad, But, who is the geezer on the right?
David Paton.
Who?
David Paton is now the ex-CEO of Peterborough United. He has apparently been a very naughty boy, according to the EFL. He has “been banned from being a Relevant Person for a period of two years effective from 19 May 2022 for acting within the definition of a Relevant Person without receiving written authority from the EFL.“
Two years. That’s four times as long a sentence as Southall received. So it’s not unreasonable to ask, was what Paton did, four times as bad as what Southall did?
We cannot reasonably judge that, because the EFL releases virtually no details of the transgressions in its statements. But we think the Paton sentence throws the Southall sentence back into sharp relief and the EFL really should explain this to fans of the three clubs Southall has infested, not to mention other citizens with legitimate reasons to see him held to account.
It is striking that on cursory investigation David Paton appears to have built a successful corporate career, featuring names like Deloitte and Grant Thornton. Matt Southall on the other hand, well…once again here is the link to his extensive Dossier page. If you assumed that previous misdemeanours would be taken into account by the EFL, we know which of the two we’d expect to come away with the longer sentence.
Now that said, we have to welcome the evidence to support the view of, among others, our good friend and wise counsel Kieran Maguire (Price of Football podcast), that the EFL has been toughening up its act regarding the OADT and related ownership transgressions. Here we have two solid examples of the EFL doing what fans have long demanded. The issue is that Southall, one of the most notorious characters, whose activities have forced the EFL to change, seems to have got off with a wrist slap, and the Paton sentence makes it all the more perplexing.
We can imagine that the EFL feel they have to be careful to serve justice based strictly on their rule book. They may say that the rules were different when Southall was at Charlton, so they cannot take his behaviour there into account. He was not actually named in the Rochdale case either, but that’s also perplexing. His involvement was well documented by our Dale friends. We’ve heard the audio! More importantly, the EFL know all of this too. We know that this website is read at EFL HQ.
We no longer subscribe to the popular view that the EFL is “useless“. People we’ve spoken to, speak well of new CEO Trevor Birch. But we urge him to understand that the Southall sentence is a setback for the activist fans of distressed clubs, fans who can influence the narrative, and potentially say to the wider fanbases, “the EFL is upping its game“. The lenient sentence for Southall undermines the ability of the EFL, with the help of outlets like this one, to change the narrative for the better. We urge the EFL to respond to requests to explain the sentence to fans of Brum, Dale, and Charlton, and address head-on the comparison with the Paton case. If that means going into more detail than has been normal..well, actually, why not? That too, is part of “upping your game“.