Southampton's statement in response to their 'Spygate' punishment namechecks Everton
Everton have been namechecked in Southampton’s statement regarding ‘Spygate’ as the disgraced Hampshire outfit have hit out at their punishment that they describe as “manifestly disproportionate to every previous sanction in the history of the English game.”
Southampton were thrown out of the Championship play-off final after the Saints turned to sinners and admitted they had spied on three clubs throughout the season en route to reaching Wembley and a crack at an instant return to the Premier League. Middlesbrough, beaten by Southampton in the semi-final, have been reinstated and will now play Hull City for a place in the top flight.
The EFL charged Tonda Eckert’s side with watching training sessions involving Oxford United and Ipswich Town, in addition to filming Boro as they prepared for the first leg of their play-off semi-final on May 7. The independent disciplinary commission also handed Southampton a four-point deduction in the Championship for next season.
However, the south coast club have now issued a statement through their chief executive Phil Parsons which cites Everton’s brace of points deductions, remarking how the losses that the Blues were punished for because of breaching PSR rules are a smaller figure than the funds they are now set to miss out on. Southampton’s response reads as follows...
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We have appealed yesterday’s decision by the Independent Disciplinary Commission to expel Southampton Football Club from the Sky Bet Championship Play-Offs, and to impose a four-point deduction for the 2026/27 season. Before turning to that appeal, I want to address our supporters, our players, and the wider football community directly and without equivocation.
What happened was wrong. 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.
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.
Our appeal will be heard today, and we will provide a further update in due course.