Category: Championship League

• Club say expulsion from playoffs is ‘disproportionate’

• Saints’ chief executive apologises to their supporters

Southampton have prefaced an appeal against their expulsion from Saturday’s Championship playoff final for spying with a pre-emptive strike, describing the punishment as “manifestly disproportionate”.

Shortly before a hearing in front of a senior judge began early on Wednesday evening, Southampton’s chief executive, Phil Parsons, hit out at the decision of an English Football League independent disciplinary commission to throw them out of the playoffs and impose a four-point deduction next season. While Parsons was at pains to apologise for espionage offences against Middlesbrough, Ipswich and Oxford, he described the sanctions imposed on the club as being markedly out of step with English football precedent.

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• Saints are appealing against expulsion and deduction

• Windass: story ‘one of the maddest I’ve seen’

The Wrexham forward Josh Windass has called for the Championship playoffs to be started again, with his team involved, after Southampton’s expulsion on Tuesday. Saints were removed from the post-season competition by an independent commission after admitting to three spying offences, including against Middlesbrough, their playoff semi-final opponents.

Southampton have confirmed they will appeal against the sanctions imposed, with a league arbitration panel being convened on Thursday. The panel could uphold the original decision or reinstate Saints, who also had four points docked for next season.

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There needs to be a zero-tolerance approach to stealing other clubs’ secrets – Kim Hellberg’s emotional response shows just how deep this goes

Kim Hellberg was clearly upset and his press conference after Middlesbrough’s defeat at Southampton in the Championship semi‑final playoff second leg became unexpectedly moving as a result. In football, the Boro manager said, you accept that some teams have greater resources than others but where the coach of the less well-off team can gain an advantage is in the “tactical element”; it is in effect the only weapon he has. And if that weapon is made less effective by an opponent cheating, it is understandable that Hellberg should feel that his profession, the skillset he has developed to test himself against his peers, has been betrayed.

That disgust is, no doubt, genuine enough, and it is perhaps difficult for those of us who do not work in that world fully to grasp how frustrating it must be if strategies and ploys carefully conceived and practised are rendered ineffective, not by the in-game acuity of an opponent, but by espionage. But it is admittedly hard to square that righteous anger with the image published in the Mail this week of a sheepish young man lurking behind a tree with a phone.

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• Boro say move is ‘only appropriate response’ to scandal

• Australian Hull fan angry over possible postponement

Middlesbrough have demanded that the English Football League expel Southampton from the Championship playoff final against Hull and are furious at being denied a chance to argue their case at an independent disciplinary hearing.

Southampton, who beat Middlesbrough 2-1 on aggregate in the semi-final, are facing EFL misconduct charges after Boro said they had been the victims of training-ground spying.

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• Hearing over spying allegations on or before Tuesday

• Fans warned before booking travel and accommodation

The English Football League has indicated that Southampton could be kicked out of the playoffs and that the date of the Championship playoff final may be delayed if the club are found guilty of breaching regulations.

Southampton have been charged by the EFL for allegedly spying on Middlesbrough’s training within 72 hours of their first-leg meeting and for not acting “with the utmost good faith”.

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• Boro to return to training on Friday after semi-final loss

• Southampton analyst accused of spying on training

Middlesbrough are scheduled to return to training on Friday in order to be ready to contest a potential playoff final against Hull at Wembley on Saturday week.

Although Boro lost the semi-final to Southampton, they are pushing for the south-coast side to be expelled from the playoffs after William Salt, one of Tonda Eckert’s analysts, was allegedly caught spying on Kim Hellberg’s team at their Rockliffe Park base near Darlington last Thursday.

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A bizarre 116th-minute winner from Shea Charles sent Southampton into the Championship playoff final against Hull City

It’s THREE changes for Southampton. Kuryu Matsuki, Shea Charles and Ross Stewart come into the side.

After the first leg, Luke Ayling of Middlesbrough was asked about the spy scandal. He was at Leeds when similar occurred under Marcelo Bielsa. He said he was “pleading the fifth”. Then, he said the players know nothing about that sort of thing.

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Second-half goals from substitutes Mohamed Belloumi and Joe Gelhardt put Hull into the playoff final, where they’ll meet Middlesbrough or Southampton

The first leg saw some classic Grown Men action:

And for balance, here’s some classic Hull.

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• Middlesbrough apprehended alleged spy last week

• Saints may claim that the offender was an intern

Middlesbrough have been approached by fellow Championship clubs who harbour suspicions that their pre-match training sessions may also have been spied on by Southampton.

The English Football League has charged the south-coast club with misconduct after a member of Tonda Eckert’s backroom was allegedly caught breaching regulations by filming and making audio recordings of one of Kim Hellberg’s final practice sessions before his Middlesbrough side faced Eckert’s Southampton in Saturday’s playoff semi-final first leg at the Riverside Stadium. As Hellberg prepares his players for Tuesday’s second leg at St Mary’s Stadium with the score goalless, Championship rivals are understood to be examining any available CCTV training-ground footage from recent weeks.

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Hull City and Millwall played football for about 95 minutes, and then the referee blew his whistle and they stopped

1 min: From kick-off a long ball leads to a long throw, which leads to a corner, which is headed away.

1 min: Peeeep! Millwall get the game started “in their cream strip with navy and mint v-neck”, we’re told.

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• League to convene disciplinary panel at ‘earliest opportunity’

• Furious Boro want playoff opponents to be punished severely

Southampton have been charged with misconduct by the English Football League and will face an independent disciplinary commission set to be convened “at the earliest opportunity”.

Middlesbrough remain furious after catching a man they maintain belongs to Tonda Eckert’s backroom staff allegedly spying on a vital training session before Saturday’s Championship playoff semi-final first leg against Southampton at the Riverside Stadium.

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• Individual seen in bushes was confronted on Thursday

• Echoes of Marcelo Bielsa’s 2019 ‘spygate’ affair

Middlesbrough believe they caught a Southampton analyst hiding in the bushes and allegedly recording their training session on Thursday morning, in a remarkable repeat of the 2019 Marcelo Bielsa “spygate” affair.

Boro have reported the incident to the English Football League as spying on opposition training is in breach of their regulations. The EFL is investigating the alleged misconduct and have requested Southampton’s observations regarding the matter.

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• The 35-year-old, brother of Will Still, lasts three months

• Watford sack 11th head coach since end of 2020-21 season

Watford have sacked head coach Ed Still, just three months into a two-and-a-half year contract, following the Championship club’s dismal end to the season. Still was Watford’s 11th permanent head coach since the end of the 2020-21 season.

Still, 35, was appointed in February following the resignation of Javi Gracia and his sacking comes at the end of the Championship season in which Watford lost six of their final seven games. The Hornets finished 16th, 10 points above the relegation zone.

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Gloves will be off in Saturday’s lunchtime kick-offs as all three clubs hope to join Coventry in the top-flight

If Ipswich do not achieve promotion this month the image may be permanently seared into Jack Clarke’s retinas. He had slalomed through Southampton’s defence in the final act of a dizzying cameo on Tuesday night and, from an angle on the left, unleashed a near-flawless drive across Daniel Peretz. Replays barely do justice to the home No 1’s left-handed save but the key detail is that he somehow got a touch on the ball and glanced it millimetres wide, with Clarke preparing to wheel off towards the visiting fans. It was 2-2 in the 94th minute and Ipswich would have been home and dry with a win but for the merest snick off the edges of Peretz’s goalkeeping apparel.

It means the gloves will be off on Saturday lunchtime at Portman Road, the Den and far beyond. The league’s finale is poised deliciously and, even if the Championship winners, Coventry, are long gone, nobody is going quietly in the wait for second. Will Ipswich, experienced in such scenarios under Kieran McKenna, use quality and muscle memory to preserve second spot? Could Alex Neil’s relentless Millwall offer up the story of the season by returning to the big time after 36 years away? Or will Kim Hellberg and Middlesbrough, seemingly a top-flight team in waiting for much of the campaign before falling away, orchestrate one last twist?

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Coventry celebrated their Championship title with a 3-1 victory that leaves Wrexham’s playoff ambitions in the balance.

The Sky Blues were in party mood after Frank Lampard’s side had wrapped up the title on Tuesday and before the trophy presentation after the final whistle. Brandon Thomas-Asante volleyed the hosts ahead after 19 minutes at the CBS Arena, but Ollie Rathbone replied quickly for sixth-placed Wrexham.

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