Thanks to their victory over Middlesbrough, Southampton had qualified for the Championship playoff final. Except that the Saints will not be able to play for promotion against Hull City at Wembley: following a full-blown “Spygate”, scandal, the club has been excluded from the playoffs. And in the next season they will start with a four-point deduction. But what exactly happened? Evidence emerged that some members of the coaching staff of Tonda Eckert, Southampton’s manager, had spied on Middlesbrough’s training sessions – before the semi-final – and those of other teams during the season. In addition to the technical, economic and sporting damage, the club could also be dragged into court by its own players. Who are now considering legal action against the club.
Let’s take things in order: Southampton finished the Championship season fourth in the table, firmly in the playoff places, after a stunning comeback masterminded by Eckert himself, who arrived in November in place of Will Still. In the semi-final, as mentioned, the Saints faced Middlesbrough: after a 0-0 draw in the first leg, they managed to reach the final with a home win in extra time. On the other side of the draw, Hull City came out on top against Millwall and, in the meantime, the EFL (the English body that runs the leagues below the Premier League) accused the club not only of spying on Middlesbrough’s training sessions before the playoff semi-final, but also those of Oxford United last December and Ipswich Town in April.
Evidence of this spying had also ended up online: on social media, the image of William Salt, a member of Eckert’s coaching staff, went viral after he was photographed by Middlesbrough’s photographer while filming a closed-door training session hidden behind a tree at the Rockliffe Park training centre. Southampton admitted their wrongdoing, but also announced that they had appealed against the EFL’s decision. Middlesbrough, in turn, have been reinstated and will play the final at Wembley against Hull City next Saturday, 23 May.
The problem is that Southampton now have to face friendly fire: the players in Eckert’s squad are ready to consider possible legal action against the club. According to The Athletic, the footballers have already contacted the Professional Footballers’ Association (the English footballers’ union) to ask for advice on how to proceed. A source close to the Saints environment also said that the team had largely been kept in the dark about the affair. The players are therefore ready to take the club to court, should the English Football League confirm their exclusion from the Championship playoffs. The anger, in addition to the reputational damage that has engulfed the entire club, also stems from the fact that the players had seen their wages cut by 40% after last year’s relegation to the Championship,. By achieving promotion, they could have returned to their previous levels, but now that hope has vanished. Through no fault of their own, since they have been deprived of a final they had earned on the pitch, and that is precisely the point.