Southampton were kicked out of the Championship play-offs on Tuesday after admitting repeatedly spying on opponents.
The English Football League welcomed Middlesbrough back on Saturday to face Hull City in the Wembley final, football’s richest competition. The winner will be promoted to the Premier League.
Earlier this month, Southampton were charged with filming Middlesbrough’s training session without permission ahead of the semi-final. They won with the score tied at two, and were one game away from promotion to the top league.
The league said the south coast club had subsequently admitted further breaches this season relating to matches against Oxford United and Ipswich. The winning points for next season were also reduced by 4 points.
“Southampton have the right to appeal the committee’s decision in accordance with EFL regulations and the parties are working to resolve the appeal on Wednesday 20 May. Depending on the outcome, further changes to Saturday’s game may be made,” the league said in a statement.
The league said Southampton had admitted a breach which required the club to “act in the utmost good faith and prohibit the observation of another club’s training session within 72 hours of a scheduled match”.
The newspaper announced that the final was scheduled to go ahead as scheduled despite the disruption caused by Middlesbrough’s delayed return.
The playoff final has been called the richest one-off soccer match in the world, as the winning team is expected to earn at least $270 million in future earnings.
Promotion to English soccer’s top flight, the world’s richest and most-watched league, will bring multi-billion dollar global broadcast deals and packed stadiums for games against the world’s biggest teams, including Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal.
Southampton were relegated from the Premier League after finishing bottom of the table last season and were aiming for an immediate return.
The surprising decision to banish them from the final was taken after Leeds were previously punished for spying.
In 2019, EFL fines Leeds $259,000 for spying on Derby’s pre-match training sessions.
Marcelo Bielsa, Leeds’ manager at the time, accepted responsibility for having club officials spy on Derby training. During a detailed hour-long press conference, Bielsa later admitted he had watched at least one of his opponents’ training sessions.
In issuing the fine, the EFL said Leeds’ conduct fell “well below the standards expected by the EFL and must never be repeated”.
The Southampton incident has echoes with Canada’s Olympic women’s soccer team being penalized. flying drone We covered New Zealand’s closed-door practice session ahead of the team’s competition at the 2024 Paris Games.
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