Southampton have been charged with a breach of EFL regulations after being accused of spying on a Middlesbrough training session ahead of the two clubs’ Championship play-off semi-final.<\/p>\n
The English Football League had received a complaint from Middlesbrough over allegations of unauthorised filming by someone connected to Southampton during a training session ahead of Saturday\u2019s first leg at the Riverside Stadium.<\/p>\n
The incident had revived memories of an incident when the League issued a fine of \u00a3200,000 to Leeds for spying on a Derby training session before a match between the two clubs in January 2019.<\/p>\n
An EFL statement on Friday night read: “Southampton Football Club has today been charged with a breach of EFL Regulations, and the matter will be referred to an Independent Disciplinary Commission.<\/p>\n
“This follows a request from the EFL for the club\u2019s observations after a complaint from Middlesbrough relating to alleged unauthorised filming on private property ahead of the two clubs meeting in Saturday\u2019s Sky Bet Championship play-off semi-final first leg.<\/p>\n
“The charges relate to the following 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\u2019s training session within 72 hours of a scheduled match between the two clubs.<\/p>\n
“Under EFL Regulations, Southampton would ordinarily have 14 days to respond to the charges.<\/p>\n
“However, given the nature of the matter, the EFL will ask the Independent Disciplinary Commission to shorten the response period and to list a hearing at the earliest opportunity.<\/p>\n
“The League will make no further comment whilst proceedings are ongoing. “<\/p>\n
Saints responded to the EFL charge, saying: “Southampton Football Club acknowledges the statement issued by the EFL in relation to alleged breaches of EFL Regulations.<\/p>\n
“We can confirm that we will be fully cooperating with the League throughout this process.<\/p>\n
“Given the ongoing nature of the matter, the club is unable to comment any further at this time.”<\/p>\n
Middlesbrough have been approached for comment by the Press Association.<\/p>\n
Hull and Millwall met on Friday night in the other Championship semi-final, with the first leg being drawn 0-0.<\/p>\n
Tigers boss Sergej Jakirovic said he was completely unaware of the ‘spygate’ story surrounding Southampton.<\/p>\n
“Why do you need to spy? We played already,” Jakirovic said.<\/p>\n
“I know everything about everything. What Middlesbrough will surprise (with?) He will put 14 players? What? Unbelievable. Really?”<\/p>\n
Millwall manager Alex Neil said: “I would certainly comment on it if somebody from Hull was hiding in a tree videoing our training. Well, I might not have caught him yet!<\/p>\n
“It doesn\u2019t affect us, so I\u2019m not going to get involved in that conversation.”<\/p>\n
The alleged incident has revived memories of when the League issued a fine of \u00a3200,000 to Leeds for a breach of its \u2018good faith\u2019 regulations in 2019.<\/p>\n
Then Leeds manager Marcelo Bielsa sent a spy to the Derby training ground before a match between the two clubs.<\/p>\n
Bielsa, who faced fierce criticism for his actions and responded by delivering a lengthy press briefing outlining his coaching methods, paid the fine out of his own pocket.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Southampton have been charged with a breach of EFL regulations after being accused of spying on a Middlesbrough…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":439544,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-439543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=439543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439543\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/439544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=439543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=439543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=439543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}