Southampton thrown out of playoff finals because of spying

Southampton finally made it to the finals… or but did they? The English soccer team was accused of spying on their rivals, namely Middlesborough. Although Southampton won the game, they were kicked out of the finals, after admitting to spying. The reason behind the suspicion was due to an incident at a Middlesborough training where someone reported seeing a man, thought to be a Southampton junior analyst, filming the practice with his phone. He hid behind a tree, before being spotted by a Middlesborough staff member. He took off and deleted some footage and later changed his clothes in the bathroom of a nearby golf club.

Because of the accusation, the EFL let Middlesborough compete in the finals against Hull City instead. This has led to some debates over whether this is fair or not. Hull City was unhappy over the fact that they would have to play a different team all of a sudden. The owner of the club even said that they may take legal action if necessary, claiming that there was no other option.

Southampton will receive a four point deduction for the following season. Even worse, they will miss the chance of being promoted to the Premier League, an opportunity worth hundreds of millions. Southampton called this “an extremely disappointing outcome.”

The last time a club was accused of spying, they were charged £200,000. However, that was seven years ago, and before the EFL had any specific rules on spying. Since then, no club is allowed to spy within three days of a game, and Southampton has just broken that rule.

Southampton, in fact was also accused of spying on two other rival teams, Oxford and Ipswitch, earlier this season. This led to an investigation, where some stated that Southampton had a plan to spy this whole time to gain advantage. Others even started criticizing the head coach, Tonda Eckert, for pressuring the staff to spy.