{"id":457915,"date":"2026-05-20T06:24:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T06:24:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/457915\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T06:24:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T06:24:14","slug":"southampton-expelled-from-championship-play-off-final-after-admitting-spying-on-rivals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/457915\/","title":{"rendered":"Southampton expelled from Championship play-off final after admitting spying on rivals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>SOUTHAMPTON HAVE BEEN expelled from the Championship play-offs and docked four points after admitting to spying on opponents Middlesbrough before their semi-final meeting.<\/p>\n<p>The Teesside club have been reinstated to the play-offs in an incredible verdict from an independent commission, which heard the case on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>Middlesbrough reported to the EFL that a member of Southampton staff had spied on a training session on May 7, in breach of league rules, with the EFL charging them the following day.<\/p>\n<p>Middlesbrough are now set to take on Hull in Saturday\u2019s play-off final at Wembley, pending any appeal from Southampton.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\" xml:lang=\"en\">A statement from MFC:<\/p>\n<p>Middlesbrough Football Club welcomes the outcome of today\u2019s Disciplinary Commission hearing.<\/p>\n<p>We believe this sends out a clear message for the future of our game regarding sporting integrity and conduct.<\/p>\n<p>As a club, we are now focused on our game against\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/6cjskjZKDY\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/6cjskjZKDY<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Middlesbrough FC (@Boro) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Boro\/status\/2056793492521644407?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">May 19, 2026<\/a> <\/p>\n<p>Southampton have confirmed to the Press Association they will appeal the sanctions. The EFL said the parties were working to ensure an appeal could be heard on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSubject to the outcome, it could result in a further change to Saturday\u2019s fixture,\u201d the EFL said.<\/p>\n<p>The EFL confirmed further charges had been laid against Southampton on Sunday, and that Southampton had admitted observing training sessions ahead of matches against Oxford last December and Ipswich in April 2026, as well as the one before the Boro game.<\/p>\n<p>Republic of Ireland internationals Ryan Manning and Finn Azaz were due to play for Southampton in the final and their international teammate, Middlesbrough\u2019s Alan Browne, is now set to feature in their place.<\/p>\n<p>                <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SOUTHAMPTON HAVE BEEN expelled from the Championship play-offs and docked four points after admitting to spying on opponents&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":457916,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[2075,198619,61,60,3405,24829,112],"class_list":["post-457915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-breaking","tag-efl","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-soccer","tag-southampton","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457915","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=457915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457915\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/457916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}