Cardiff City to take legal action against Crystal Palace

Cardiff City to take legal action against Crystal Palace over 'spygate' row


Cardiff frustrated Crystal Palace only received fine of around £25,000 for breaching Premier League regulations and there has been no apology



Crystal Palace’s difficult start to the campaign has suffered further turbulence after it emerged they are facing the prospect of legal action from Cardiff City over the ‘spygate’ row.


Cardiff are frustrated that Palace only received a fine of around £25,000 from the Premier League for breaching league regulations, with the London club accused of obtaining the starting XI before their game in April.


Cardiff are also unhappy to have not received an apology.


Legal letters have been sent to Palace and Iain Moody, who left Cardiff as head of recruitment in October, informing them the club intend to pursue a claim for financial damages.


Palace won the game 3-0 but Cardiff have always insisted their team was leaked to a club who, at the time, had also been facing the prospect of relegation to the Championship.



The Premier League, meanwhile, is yet to receive any intent of legal action from Cardiff after Palace were found guilty of a breach of rule B16 that requires all clubs to act with “the utmost good faith” to each other in all league matters.


There is a feeling in football, however, that the breach of rules was on a relatively low end of the scale of seriousness, particularly amid comparisons that have been made with the Carlos Tévez affair.


Palace denied the claims with Moody saying it was “incredibly, extraordinarily untrue” that he was involved in any wrongdoing.


In April, former manager Pulis said of the spying claim: “As a manager and as a coach, I log every session that I do, and I’ll be taking those sessions up to the Premier League to show that I picked my team on Monday before we played Cardiff on the Saturday.


“That team was worked with for a week and there were no changes in it whatsoever.”