{"id":457235,"date":"2026-05-19T20:46:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T20:46:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/457235\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T20:46:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T20:46:07","slug":"southampton-kicked-out-of-championship-playoff-final-after-admitting-multiple-cases-of-spying-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/457235\/","title":{"rendered":"Southampton kicked out of Championship playoff final after admitting \u2018multiple\u2019 cases of spying \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/southampton-fc\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/southampton-fc\">Southampton<\/a> have been expelled from the Championship playoff final and docked four points for next season for spying on Middlesbrough and two other opponents.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">An independent disciplinary \u00adcommission handed down the punishment after the English Football League (EFL) charged Southampton with a breach of its regulations. The EFL said Southampton had \u201cadmitted to multiple breaches of EFL regulations related to the unauthorised filming of other clubs\u2019 training\u201d and that the admitted breaches \u201cconcern fixtures against Oxford United in December 2025, Ipswich Town in April 2026 and Middlesbrough in May 2026\u2033.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">It means Middlesbrough, who were beaten by Southampton in the semi-finals, are due to face Hull for a place in the Premier League. The final remains scheduled for Saturday at Wembley. Southampton have appealed and the commission aims to resolve the appeal by the end of Wednesday. \u201cSubject to the outcome, it could result in a further change to Saturday\u2019s fixture,\u201d the EFL said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Middlesbrough had demanded that Southampton be kicked out of the playoffs after saying they had been the victims of training-ground spying two days before their semi-final, first-leg meeting.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Boro said they had caught a Southampton analyst hiding in the bushes and recording their training session. Boro have continued to train, knowing they could be reinstated.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Southampton did not win any of the games that followed their spying, losing at Oxford and drawing at home to Ipswich and at Middlesbrough. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">They then beat Boro 2-1 in the second leg. Ireland internationals Finn Azaz and Ryan Manning both started that game, with Northern Ireland international Shea Charles scoring the winning goal in extra-time. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Boro welcomed the commission\u2019s ruling and said: \u201cWe believe this sends out a clear message for the future of our game regarding sporting integrity and conduct.\u201d \u2013 Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Southampton have been expelled from the Championship playoff final and docked four points for next season for spying&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":457236,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,36767,112],"class_list":["post-457235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-southampton-fc","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457235","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=457235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457235\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/457236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}