Southampton Appeal Championship Play-Off Final Expulsion

Southampton have launched an appeal against their expulsion from the Championship play-off final, calling the punishment “manifestly disproportionate” to any previous sanction in English football history.

An EFL disciplinary commission removed the Saints from the final on Tuesday after they admitted spying on a training session held by semi-final opponents Middlesbrough.

As a result, Middlesbrough have been reinstated and will now face Hull City at Wembley on Saturday for a place in the Premier League. Coventry and Ipswich secured automatic promotion at the end of the regular season.

Southampton will also be docked four points at the start of next season following multiple breaches of rules against the unauthorised filming of other clubs’ training sessions.

Saints chief executive Phil Parsons apologised on Wednesday, saying supporters “deserved better from the club.”

He added that Southampton “cannot accept a sanction which bears no proportion to the offence.”

The club pointed to a £200,000 fine given to Leeds United in 2019 for spying on Derby County as a precedent.

However, the EFL’s Regulation 127—which explicitly bans clubs from observing an opponent within 72 hours of a match—did not exist at the time of the Leeds case. It was introduced afterward to close a legal grey area.

An independent league arbitration panel will hear Southampton’s appeal later on Wednesday(Today).