Southampton was expelled from the Championship playoffs on Tuesday after admitting to repeatedly spying on opponents.
The English Football League reinstated Middlesbrough to play in the Wembley final — the richest game in soccer — against Hull City on Saturday. The winner gets promoted to the Premier League.
Southampton was charged this month for the unauthorized recording of Middlesbrough’s practice sessions ahead of their semifinal. It went on to win the two-legged tie to go within one game of promotion to the top flight.
The league said the south coast club had subsequently admitted further breaches this season concerning games against Oxford United and Ipswich. It was also deducted four points for next season.
Southampton can appeal.
The league said Southampton admitted breaches requiring clubs to act with the “utmost good faith and prohibiting the observation of another club’s training session within 72 hours of a scheduled match.”
It said the final was still due to go ahead as planned, despite disruption caused by Middlesbrough’s late reinstatement.
The playoff final is labeled the world’s richest one-off soccer match because a windfall of at least $270 million in future earnings is on offer for the winning team.
Promotion to the top flight of English soccer — the world’s wealthiest and most-watched league — brings with it access to its multibillion-dollar global broadcast deals, as well as sold-out stadiums for games against the biggest teams in the world, like Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal.
Southampton was relegated from the Premier League after finishing bottom of the standings last season and was aiming to make an immediate return.
The stunning decision to expel it from the final comes after Leeds was punished for spying.
In 2019, the EFL fined Leeds $259,000 for spying on one of Derby’s training sessions ahead of a game.
Marcelo Bielsa, who was manager of Leeds at the time, accepted responsibility for having a club employee spy on Derby’s practice. In a detailed, hourlong news conference, Bielsa later admitted to having watched at least one of each of his opponents’ training sessions.
In handing out that fine, the EFL said Leeds’ conduct “fell significantly short of the standards expected by the EFL and must not be repeated.”
The Southampton incident has echoes of Canada’s Olympic women’s soccer team, which was penalized for flying drones over New Zealand’s closed practice sessions ahead of the teams’ match at the Paris Games in 2024.
