{"id":640397,"date":"2026-05-13T10:31:23","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T10:31:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/640397\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T10:31:23","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T10:31:23","slug":"southampton-are-in-the-play-off-final-and-on-the-verge-of-promotion-but-its-all-turned-very-toxic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/640397\/","title":{"rendered":"Southampton are in the play-off final and on the verge of promotion. But it\u2019s all turned very toxic"},"content":{"rendered":"

All too often a football match doesn\u2019t live up to the hype.<\/p>\n

As Southampton\u2019s players danced on the pitch and their fans sang about a return to Wembley and a chance to gain promotion to the Premier League, opponents Middlesbrough were crestfallen and wondering how it had ended like this after a week dominated by a spying row involving the two teams<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Over two energy-sapping legs and more than three-and-a-half hours of football, Southampton required a 116th-minute winner from Shea Charles to come from behind on the night and eliminate Middlesbrough from the Championship play-offs and advance to the final against Hull City on Saturday, May 23.<\/p>\n

And all of this came after Southampton were charged by the English Football League (EFL) after Middlesbrough lodged a formal complaint over allegations of \u201cunauthorised filming\u201d on May 7, two days before their first leg at the Riverside Stadium. Middlesbrough are seeking a sporting sanction<\/a> and have indicated they will prepare for Sunday\u2019s playoff final despite losing against Southampton.<\/p>\n

That is why, despite the drama on the pitch at St Mary\u2019s on Tuesday night, and there was plenty, it largely felt somewhat secondary \u2014 and it is hard to ascertain whether there were any winners, be it Southampton, Middlesbrough, the EFL, and maybe even the Premier League.<\/p>\n

Tonda Eckert, the Southampton head coach, wanting to reflect on his team\u2019s memorable night, was probed about the spying allegations \u2014 saying the club is taking them \u201cvery seriously\u201d and conceding that they have \u201covershadowed\u201d the match \u2014 up until the moment he was asked outright whether he is a cheat, bringing an abrupt end to his post-match press conference.<\/p>\n

On the other hand but in the same seat, you had Kim Hellberg, the Middlesbrough head coach, who spoke passionately for close to 15 minutes after Tuesday\u2019s fixture about the spying allegations and how they have impacted him and his team.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Kim Hellberg reacts at the final whistle on Tuesday night (Warren Little\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Hellberg, visibly emotional at times, praised Southampton\u2019s players for their performances over two legs but stopped short of congratulating Eckert, making clear he has nothing to say to his counterpart.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we didn\u2019t catch that man who they sent up, five hours to drive, you would sit here and say, \u2018Well done\u2019, maybe in the tactical aspects of the game, and I would go home and feel like I have failed in that aspect that I had to help my players,\u201d Hellberg said after the match.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut when that is taken away from you, when someone decides, \u2018Nah, we\u2019re not going to watch every game, we\u2019ll send someone instead, we\u2019ll film the session, and see everything, and hope they don\u2019t get caught\u2019, I guess that\u2019s why they were switching clothes and all those things, it breaks my heart, in terms of all those things I believe in.\u201d<\/p>\n

The match itself had all the needle you would expect.<\/p>\n

Southampton\u2019s team arrived at St Mary\u2019s amid a sea of red smoke from the flares lit by the thousands of fans who had lined the street to greet them.<\/p>\n

The same supporters stuck around to welcome Middlesbrough, and the now-expired flares were being thrown at the coach as it parked up outside the stadium.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

\n Middlesbrough\u2019s team coach arrives at St Mary\u2019s (Warren Little\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The game constantly felt on the edge, sometimes teetering over, from the first kick to the last.<\/p>\n

During the first half, Middlesbrough defender Luke Ayling reportedly made a complaint to Andrew Madley, the match official, over alleged discriminatory abuse directed at him by the Southampton player Taylor Harwood-Bellis, which neither head coach wanted to comment on in the aftermath.<\/p>\n

This incident also led to Eckert and Hellberg nearly coming to blows before being separated by the fourth official.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Taylor Harwood-Bellis and Luke Ayling clash at St Mary\u2019s (Warren Little\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

To add to the sense of chaos, a ballboy refused to give the ball to Middlesbrough\u2019s Matt Targett \u2014 who began his career at Southampton \u2014 which led to another flare-up.<\/p>\n

At every turn, it felt as though the game was about to descend into anarchy, and you were never quite sure when that would be or who it would involve.<\/p>\n

Riley McGree put the visitors ahead on the night with an early goal before Ross Stewart equalised in first-half stoppage time.<\/p>\n

After a frenzied opening 45 minutes, the second half and extra time largely passed without incident. The tie was sealed by Charles\u2019 cross-shot with four minutes to go.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Welington and Ryan Manning celebrate the decisive goal (Warren Little\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

His goal sparked wild celebrations inside St Mary\u2019s, none more so than in the press box, where Southampton\u2019s analysts, doing the opposite of keeping a low profile amid the allegations levelled at the club, were enthusiastically bouncing around.<\/p>\n

For the EFL, you can make a very strong case that the easiest solution for almost everybody involved \u2014 excluding Southampton \u2014 would have been for Middlesbrough to win over two legs.<\/p>\n

But that didn\u2019t happen, and now the build-up to the play-off final on May 23, the most lucrative game in football<\/a>, is going to be dominated by discussions over whether Southampton should be thrown out if they are found guilty of wrongdoing.<\/p>\n

The EFL\u2019s Independent Disciplinary Commission, the body now overseeing the charges, has a range of sanctions, both sporting and financial, at its disposal, including one that gives it ultimate discretion to impose any punishment they \u201csee fit\u201d.<\/p>\n

So, although it seems unthinkable, maybe even implausible, there is a possibility Southampton could be removed from the play-offs ahead of the final.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

\n A Southampton fan takes a light-hearted view of the spying scandal (Warren Little\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

In that context, it is understandable why the EFL has asked the independent body to shorten the clubs\u2019 response period and to set a hearing date as soon as possible.<\/p>\n

And as for the Premier League, there is every chance that Southampton beat Hull, return to the top table in English football, and then the Premier League inherits a scenario where the EFL has issued a points deduction and they are being asked to impose it.<\/p>\n

A tweak to the Premier League\u2019s rules in light of Leicester City being deducted six points \u2014 despite being in the EFL \u2014 in February for breaching financial regulations, now means that if a promoted club \u201cis the subject of an investigation by the EFL for alleged breaches of any aligned provisions within the EFL Regulations\u201d, then \u201cresponsibility for that investigation will pass to the Board\u201d.<\/p>\n

Even though the tussle on the pitch between Southampton and Middlesbrough has come to an end, the conflict off it is only just beginning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"All too often a football match doesn\u2019t live up to the hype. As Southampton\u2019s players danced on the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":640398,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[2234,195843,1084,403,36569,99],"class_list":["post-640397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-championship","tag-middlesbrough","tag-premier-league","tag-soccer","tag-southampton","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=640397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640397\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/640398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=640397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=640397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=640397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}