Southampton chief executive Phil Parsons has issued a statement on Spygate in which the Saints, who are appealing their expulsion from the Championship play-offs, apologise to the clubs involved, who include Town and Oxford United as well as their play-off semi-final opponents Middlesbrough.

Last night, the Hampshire side were sensationally kicked out of Saturday's play-off final against Hull City and given a four-point deduction next season by an EFL Independent Disciplinary Commission having admitted spying on other clubs’ training immediately prior to matches.

In Town’s case, prior to the penultimate game of the season at St Mary’s, which the Saints needed to win to maintain their automatic promotion hopes, while the Blues squad was training at nearby Eastleigh’s facilities having travelled south the day prior to the match. The analyst concerned is understood to have been wearing Eastleigh-badged kit in order not to arouse suspicion.

In the statement ahead of today’s appeal against the severity of the sanction, which will be heard by a senior judge, Parsons apologises to the clubs they spied on, although without naming them specifically.

“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,” he said.

“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.”

As reported yesterday, Town were unaware of the Saints’ spying until rumours began to circulate in recent days and then the EFL officially informed them shortly before yesterday’s statement was released.

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