Southampton will play in the Championship next season after being expelled from the play-offs for admitting they spied on three league rivals. They will begin the season on minus four points after the EFL charged them with watching training sessions of Oxford United and Ipswich Town and filming Middlesbrough while preparing for the first leg of their play-off semi-final on 7 May. Southampton won over two legs, but Middlesbrough were reinstated and will play Hull City for a Premier League place at Wembley. Southampton have appealed, with a hearing scheduled for Wednesday. The EFL charged Southampton for breaching EFL Regulation 3.4 on utmost good faith and EFL Regulation 127, which bans observing another club’s training within 72 hours of a scheduled match.
"Southampton will be playing in the Championship next season after they were expelled from the play-offs following their admission that they spied on three league rivals this season. In addition, they will start next season on minus four points after the English Football League (EFL) charged them with watching training sessions of Oxford United and Ipswich Town, in addition to filming Middlesbrough as they prepared for the first leg of their play-off semi-final on 7 May."
"Southampton beat Middlesbrough over two legs but the latter have been reinstated and will play Hull City for a place in the Premier League at Wembley on Saturday. The Saints have appealed, with that hearing set to be heard on Wednesday, but does the punishment fit the crime, or have they been harshly done by? Southampton's expulsion from the play-off final means they will miss out on a game dubbed the richest in world football, with the winners guaranteed a minimum 110m in Premier League broadcast revenue."
"The whole saga came under the spotlight after Middlesbrough reported Southampton for spying on a training session on Thursday, 7 May as they prepared to meet each other in the first leg of the play-off semi-finals two days later. Saints were then charged by the EFL on 8 May with breaking two regulations. EFL Regulation 3.4, which requires clubs to act towards each other with the utmost good faith; and EFL Regulation 127, which prohibits any club from observing, or attempting to observe, another club's training session within 72 hours of a scheduled match between the two clubs."
"Former Premier League goalkeeper Paul Robinson praised the EFL for applying a punishment that he feels protects the integrity of the game. "I kind of quite like it," he said on BBC Radio 5 live. "It is like when you're a naughty kid. If you admit three or four things, you have clearly done seven or eight, and you have been caught for them all. The integrity of the game is of the utmost impor"
#efl-sanctions #southampton-fc #play-off-expulsion #spying-on-training-sessions #championship-points-deduction
Read at www.bbc.com
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