{"id":580699,"date":"2026-05-12T23:43:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T23:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/580699\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T23:43:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T23:43:09","slug":"southampton-in-final-but-may-have-to-forfeit-place-if-found-guilty-of-spying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/580699\/","title":{"rendered":"Southampton in final \u2014 but may have to forfeit place if found guilty of spying"},"content":{"rendered":"

Southampton may have beaten Middlesbrough to reach the Championship play-off final but could be forced to forfeit their place at Wembley if they are found guilty of spying charges.<\/p>\n

The club are likely to face a sporting sanction, rather than a fine, if the EFL\u2019s disciplinary hearing finds that they spied on a Middlesbrough training session before the first leg of the play-off semi-final.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The EFL is aiming for the \u201cspygate\u201d hearing against Southampton, plus any appeal that may follow, to be concluded before the final on May 23, when they will face Hull City. Although an independent panel will make the decisions on the timing, it will be made fully aware of the timescale of the final and how vital it is for the case to be concluded before then.<\/p>\n

It means that Middlesbrough could still be involved in the climax of the Championship season even though they lost Tuesday night\u2019s semi-final second leg, with Shea Charles scoring the winner in the 116th minute to seal a 2-1 aggregate win.<\/p>\n

\"SouthamptonTwo Southampton fans opted for camouflage spy outfits, rather than the more conspicuous florescent yellow club kit robbie hoad\/Shutterstock Editorial<\/p>\n

Southampton were charged with a breach of EFL rules on Friday after a complaint from Middlesbrough about alleged unauthorised filming on private property two days before the goalless first leg at the Riverside Stadium on Saturday.<\/p>\n

A rule introduced in June 2019, after a spying incident involving Leeds United at Derby County\u2019s training ground, specifically makes it an offence to observe another club\u2019s training session within 72 hours of a match between the two clubs.<\/p>\n

Insiders believe that now clubs know that spying is banned outright, anyone found to have broken the rule can expect a sporting sanction, rather than the kind of fine handed out to Leeds. Another possible sanction is that they could forfeit the first leg of the play-off, which would be awarded as a 3-0 win to Middlesbrough.<\/p>\n

\"RossRoss Stewart celebrates scoring for Southampton to make it 1-1 \u2014 the match was still level after 90 minutes and went to extra timerobin jones\/Getty<\/p>\n

Southampton would be able to lodge an appeal to an EFL board, and the intention would be for that process to be expedited too, as it would be a hugely complicated scenario for any sporting sanction to be applied after the play-off final. Southampton would not be able to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport however.<\/p>\n

The spying session is alleged to have taken place within 72 hours of the first leg of the semi-final. It has been claimed that a member of Southampton\u2019s staff was spotted behind a tree at the gate between Middlesbrough\u2019s training pitches and the Rockliffe Hall Golf Club. He was apprehended by a member of the club\u2019s media team and forced to delete videos on his phone of Hellberg taking his players through training.<\/p>\n

Middlesbrough have captured the alleged perpetrator on CCTV and believe it is someone who has been pictured celebrating alongside the Southampton head coach, Tonda Eckert, when they have won matches in the Championship.<\/p>\n

The Middlesbrough head coach, Kim Hellberg, who described the alleged spying as \u201cimmoral\u201d, said before Tuesday\u2019s match that he had a plan in place for his players to be at work for another two weeks.<\/p>\n

Southampton\u2019s chief executive, Phil Parsons, said in a statement on Tuesday that the club are \u201cfully cooperating\u201d with the EFL and the disciplinary commission, and \u201calso undertaking an internal review to ensure that all facts and context are properly understood\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cGiven the intensity of the fixture schedule and the short turnaround between matches, we have requested time to complete that process thoroughly and responsibly. We understand the discussion and speculation that has followed over recent days, but we also believe it is important that the full context is established before conclusions are drawn.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Southampton may have beaten Middlesbrough to reach the Championship play-off final but could be forced to forfeit their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":580700,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[218,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-580699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-football","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=580699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580699\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/580700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}