Southampton have claimed that their punishment for spying on opposition clubs is the “largest penalty ever imposed on an English football club” after appealing against their expulsion from the play-offs and points decduction.
The English Football League (EFL) has kicked Southampton out of Saturday’s final with Hull City following an investigation into allegations made by Middlesbrough ahead of the pair’s play-off semi-final. Boro are now instead due to play Hull for a place in the Premier League on Saturday afternoon at Wembley.
Southampton – who have also been given a four-point deduction next season – admitted charges of spying on three clubs ahead of fixtures thie season, including Middlesbrough, but have exercised their right to appeal the sanctions levied.
A decision is expected later on Wednesday as to whether they will be reinstated for the final, with Southampton believing the punishment to not be commensurate to the crime.
“What happened was wrong,” Phil Parsons, Southampton’s chief executive, said in a statement. “The club has admitted breaches of EFL Regulations 3.4 and 127. We are sorry to the other clubs involved, and most of all to the Southampton supporters whose extraordinary loyalty and support this season deserved better from the club.
“We have provided our full co-operation to the EFL’s investigation and disciplinary process. Following the appeal, we will also be writing to the EFL to volunteer our participation in a working group on the practical application and enforcement of Regulation 127 across the Championship. Contrition without change is hollow, and we intend to demonstrate change.
“On the appeal itself: we accept that there should be a sanction. What we cannot accept is a sanction which bears no proportion to the offence. Whereas Leeds United was fined £200,000 for a similar offence, Southampton has been denied the opportunity to compete in a game worth more than £200 million and one which means so much to our staff, players and supporters.”
The Championship play-off final is often called the richest game in football given the sizeable sums on offer to the winner that come with promotion to the Premier League.
Parsons continued: “We believe the financial consequence of yesterday’s ruling makes it, by a very considerable distance, the largest penalty ever imposed on an English football club.
“Luton Town’s 30-point deduction in 2008/09 — to date the most severe sporting sanction in the English game — was levied against a club already in League Two, with no comparable revenue at stake. Derby County’s 21-point deduction in 2021 cost them their Championship status. Everton’s eventual six-point deduction in 2023/24 followed losses of £124.5 million, a figure dwarfed by what has been taken from Southampton in a single afternoon. The largest financial penalty ever levied by the Premier League, against Chelsea in March of this year, was £10.75 million, and was accompanied by no sporting sanction whatsoever despite involving £47.5 million in undisclosed payments over seven years.
We say this not to minimise what occurred at this club, which we have accepted was wrong. We say it because proportionality is itself a principle of natural justice. The Commission was entitled to impose a sanction. It was not, we will argue, entitled to impose one that is manifestly disproportionate to every previous sanction in the history of the English game.”
It is thought that the matter will be considered settled after the appeal hearing with neither the EFL nor Southampton able to take the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas).
