'Manifestly Disproportionate': Southampton Executive Reacts To Championship Playoff Expulsion

Southampton heads into its appeal against expulsion from the Championship playoff final believing its punishment is "manifestly disproportionate" to any previous sanction in English soccer history.

The south-coast team admitted to repeatedly spying on opponents this season — including Middlesbrough ahead of the playoff semifinals — and was removed from this Saturday's match against Hull when a place in the Premier League was up for grabs.

Instead, the English Football League handed Middlesbrough a place in the final at Wembley Stadium, which is regarded as the world’s richest one-off soccer match because a windfall of at least $270 million in future earnings in the Premier League is on offer for the winning team.

In a long club statement, Southampton chief executive Phil Parsons accepted "what happened was wrong" and that the club deserved to be sanctioned.

"What we cannot accept," Parsons said, "is a sanction which bears no proportion to the offence."

"The commission was entitled to impose a sanction," he added. "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."

Parsons pointed to Leeds getting fined 200,000 pounds (then $259,000) in 2019 for spying on one of Derby’s training sessions ahead of a Championship game that season. After that, the EFL brought in rules in a bid to prevent a repeat, requiring clubs to act with the "utmost good faith and prohibiting the observation of another club’s training session within 72 hours of a scheduled match."

"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," Parsons said.

"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."

The EFL said Southampton had subsequently admitted to further breaches this season concerning games against Oxford and Ipswich. The club was also deducted four points for next season.

An arbitration panel will hear Southampton’s appeal later on Wednesday. An outcome is likely late in the day or on Thursday.

Reporting by The Associated Press.