Quite

[kal]

Another excellent thing I would have written if I could be arsed.

Mackay and Moody controversy: to punish people for their private conversations is a species of tyranny

Your thoughts are your own and as long as that is all they remain then all well and good. The fact that the club have both of their text/emails implies that they were using either company hardware or networks to send them. If that's the case then there no point complaining about it if/when it all comes out in the papers. The fact is that referring to people in the way they did means that it will be a long time before any chairman gives them a job in football again (remember Ron Atkinson's infamous lazy n*gger comment which was picked up by a mike he thought was off and broadcast, he's been no where near football since...).

[OwlHoot]

Thoughts and opinions alone, but there are loads of legal precedents for using private conversations as evidence of a conspiracy or intent to act.

For example, I vaguely recall a few years ago a couple of paedophiles were convicted and jailed for a plot to kidnap a choirboy. Their defence in court was that they were simply exchanging fantasies, which shouldn't be within the purview of the law. But the prosecution convinced the jury that on the evidence of past form they had an active intent to proceed with the plan.

[xoggoth]

Another excellent thing I would have written if I could be arsed.

Mackay and Moody controversy: to punish people for their private conversations is a species of tyranny