Southampton are awaiting the result of an appeal over their expulsion from the Championship play-off final due to Spygate but have condemned the punishment as “manifestly disproportionate”
Saints had beaten Middlesbrough 2-1 on aggregate in the semi-finals but Boro will now face Hull in the showpiece at Wembley on Saturday after the south coast club admitted multiple breaches of Football League regulations.
They said they were guilty of unauthorised filming of other clubs’ training sessions and have been hit with a four-point deduction, applicable to next season’s Championship, as well as expulsion from the play-offs, by an independent disciplinary commission.
Southampton immediately appealed the severity of the punishment, with the hearing over their fate to take place on Wednesday and before the result of that appeal landed, the club released a statement apologising for their actions but strongly disagreeing with the sanction. “The commission was entitled to impose a sanction. It was not, we will argue, entitled to impose one that is manifestly disproportionate to every previous sanction in the history of the English game,” Saints chief executive Phil Parsons said. “We believe the financial consequence of yesterday’s ruling makes it, by a very considerable distance, the largest penalty ever imposed on an English football club.”
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Who did Southampton admit to spying on?
As part of the investigation, Southampton admitted to multiple breaches of EFL regulations relating to spying on opponents – or, in the language of the rules, observing their training sessions within 72 hours of scheduled games.
The matches in question were a 2-1 defeat to an Oxford team who would end up relegated, in which Southampton were terrible, a 2-2 draw with Ipswich and the stalemate in the first leg of the play-off semi-final against Middlesbrough.
There’s a painful irony to the fact Southampton won none of those matches, yet they are in this mess.
Appeal verdict will signal end of Spygate saga
As we await the verdict of Southampton’s appeal, Sky Sports is reporting that the decision of today’s hearing will be final, with no option to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
Eckert to take charge of play-off final if appeal successful
Tonda Eckert will take charge of the Championship play-off final should Southampton’s appeal be successful, per the Daily Mail.
However, the Saints boss may only be out of the firing line momentarily with the FA considering pursuing him over misconduct.
Eckert could face a lengthy ban from football if found to have brought the game into disrepute.
Josh Windass demands Championship play-offs restart with Wrexham replacing Southampton after ‘Spygate’
The decision to expel Southampton has sparked calls for a complete reset of the play-offs, notably from Wrexham forward Josh Windass, whose team finished just outside the top six.
“This Southampton story is one of the maddest I’ve seen,” Windass wrote on Instagram. “But why isn’t the play-offs starting again with the 4 other teams? Boro v Hull would have been the semi!! Confused.”
Taking Southampton out of the equation, Wrexham would have faced third-placed Millwall in the semi-finals.
Southampton appeal hearing to begin at 6pm
The appeal hearing to decide if Southampton’s punishment will be overturned is set to begin at 6pm according to the BBC.
The result of that hearing and the decision on which team will feature in the play-off final will be revealed shortly afterwards.
Harry Redknapp describes Southampton play-off expulsion as ‘very harsh’ after ‘stupid’ mistake
“I think it’s very harsh, I didn’t see that coming – I thought they would get a heavy fine,” Rednkapp told BBC Radio Solent. “[What they have done] is so stupid it’s beyond belief.”
“What are you learning by someone filming a bit of training? What are you learning by watching them train for an hour? It was a ridiculous thing to do.
“They have made a big, big error and they have been severely punished they really have. I don’t know how it is going to pan out. We certainly haven’t heard the last of it. I thought they would get a massive fine but to be thrown out the play-off final is really very severe.”
Hull owner considering legal action
Hull owner Acun Ilicali has told Turkish media the club are considering their legal options after Southmpton’s explusion, with their lawyers’ opinion that they should go directly to the Premier League without playing Middlesbrough in the play-off final.
He did not rule out action when he spoke to Sky Sports, expressing frustration about the situation and warning postponing the final would present a “big, big problem” given international call-ups.
“For eight days, we have prepared for Southampton,” Ilicali said. “Now, today the team is off so there’s no training. Wednesdays we always give off to the boys.
“Then it comes to Thursday and Friday they cannot train, so it’s maybe one day of preparation and full training. We miss nine days of training (to prepare for Boro) so in this case we are very disappointed.
“I believe in my boys and our coach 100 per cent, but when you look at the picture it doesn’t seem too fair that we don’t know who we play.”
FA considers charging Southampton manager Tonda Eckert with misconduct over spying scandal
Still, then, we wait for news of Southampton’s appeal – but manager Tonda Eckert could find himself in the disciplinary dock again soon enough, Miguel Delaney reports:
Southampton are guilty of needless idiocy after £200m cock-up
The club that wanted to know everything seemed to have missed one minor detail in their investigations. More than 12 hours after one of the more explosive announcements in EFL history, the main story on Southampton’s club website still concerned Ross Stewart’s call-up to Scotland’s World Cup squad. And ‘the Loch Ness Drogba’ will indeed be one of the best nicknames in the United States this summer.
Matt Le Tissier claims Southampton ‘on trial for murder after stealing a Mars bar’
Southampton great Matthew Le Tissier has likened the club’s expulsion from the Sky Bet Championship play-offs to being put on trial for murder when you have stolen a chocolate bar.
Saints are reeling from the independent disciplinary commission’s decision to boot them out of Saturday’s Wembley showpiece against Hull and replace them with beaten semi-finalists Middlesbrough.
Southampton have admitted to spying on Boro before the first leg, among multiple breaches of EFL regulations, and chief executive Phil Parsons has apologised to all involved ahead of Wednesday’s appeal.B
ut Parsons has called the punishment “manifestly disproportionate to every previous sanction in the history of the English game” and club great Le Tissier has also hit out at it.
“Personally I try to put a neutral hat on but I feel like the punishment does feel a bit disproportionate,” the former Saints star, who has been working with the club in an advisory role, told The Sun.
“It feels like you’ve been put on trial for murder when all you’ve done is stolen a Mars bar from the corner shop. That’s kind of what it feels like to me.
“Yes, there’s wrongdoing, there’s a rule in place and the club perfectly accepted that there was going to be punishment.“But the surprise has come to a lot of people that the punishment does feel disproportionate with regard to what the actual offence was.”
