announced on Tuesday<\/a> that Southampton were expelled from the play-offs after admitting to spying on other clubs, and their semi-final opponent Middlesbrough had been reinstated.<\/p>\nThe governing body\u2019s Independent Disciplinary Commission also handed them a four-point deduction for the 2026-27 season in the Championship, both sanctions which Southampton will appeal.<\/p>\n
A source close to the dressing room, speaking anonymously as they were not authorised to do so, confirmed that Tonda Eckert\u2019s squad had largely been kept away from the affair and only had the basic details communicated to them by the club.<\/p>\n
The players were furious at the EFL verdict, having only found out at the same time as everyone else, with members of the squad who had taken 40 per cent pay cuts after suffering relegation from the top flight year were due to have that reinstated in the event of promotion to the Premier League.<\/p>\n
They are due to meet with the club on Wednesday, and sources with knowledge of the players\u2019 situation confirmed to The Athletic that they have contacted the Professional Footballers\u2019 Association for advice.<\/p>\n
Tuesday\u2019s EFL statement confirmed \u201cthe parties are working to try and resolve any appeal on Wednesday 20 May\u201d and that subject to the outcome, it could result in a further change to Saturday\u2019s fixture.<\/p>\n
The EFL said in Tuesday\u2019s statement that Southampton had \u201cadmitted to multiple breaches of EFL Regulations related to the unauthorised filming of other clubs\u2019 training\u201d. The Athletic\u00a0previously reported that Middlesbrough had a\u00a0statement from a former member of Southampton\u2019s staff regarding the practise of \u2018spying\u2019 on opponents before matches, according to sources briefed on the matter.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe admitted breaches concern fixtures against Oxford United in December 2025, Ipswich Town in April 2026 and Middlesbrough in May 2026,\u201d the EFL statement read.<\/p>\n
Southampton lost the Oxford fixture 2-1, and drew against Ipswich 2-2.<\/p>\n
The EFL charge came last week after a Southampton analyst, William Salt, allegedly observed Middlesbrough\u2019s training session 48 hours before the teams met in the play-off semi-final first leg. The match finished 0-0 but Southampton won the tie 2-1 with a stoppage-time goal in the second leg at St Mary\u2019s.<\/p>\n
Among Middlesbrough\u2019s evidence submitted was a photo of the alleged \u2018spy\u2019, a member of head coach Tonda Eckert\u2019s backroom analysis team, half-covered by a tree at their Rockliffe Park training ground holding up his mobile phone.<\/p>\n
Southampton finished the league season fourth on 80 points, level with Middlesbrough in fifth. Hull City finished seven points behind in sixth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Southampton players are exploring their options regarding legal action against the club if the English Football League\u2019s verdict…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":654016,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[2234,1084,403,36569,99],"class_list":["post-654015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-championship","tag-premier-league","tag-soccer","tag-southampton","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654015","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=654015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654015\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/654016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=654015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=654015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=654015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}