| Saints charged with spying 09:48 - May 9 with 103627 views | KensalT |
Southampton haven't yet denied these allegations!
For anyone who doesn't know Boro caught someone with some very sophisticated cameras and recording equipment spying on one of their training sessions.
Apparently Boro are looking into the possibility that Saints have done this to other teams this season.
Nightmare timing for the EFL. I can't see any way for them to fudge this
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| Saints charged with spying on 11:48 - May 13 with 2993 views | MrSheen |
Apparently Luke Ayling complained to the ref about Harwood-Bellis mocking his stutter before half time. They seem to have made up by the end of the game, but it’s more fuel on the fire. Apart from a bit of theft from nurses, Southampton seemed such a nice, mild club. |  | | |
| Saints charged with spying on 11:53 - May 13 with 2969 views | Hoopsie |
| Saints charged with spying on 11:40 - May 13 by daveB |
There was no law at that stage against this, due to what Leeds did they brought a rule in.
The fine was for unsporting behaviour which they have also been charged with and will likely be a fine |
Just googled:
If Southampton is found guilty of spying on an opponent's training ground, they face serious sanctions from the EFL, ranging from significant fines to potential exclusion from the Championship play-offs, following charges of breaching established league rules.
As of May 13, 2026, Southampton has been officially charged by the EFL for breaches regarding their play-off semi-final against Middlesbrough.
Potential Punishments (EFL Regulation Breaches):
Sporting Sanctions (Most Likely): Due to the timing of the incident (within 72 hours of a match), penalties could include a points deduction, or in extreme cases, exclusion from the Championship play-offs.
Forfeiture: A possible outcome is that a match result could be overturned, or a future match (such as the playoff final) could be impacted, including potential exclusion, according to reports.
Financial Penalties: Similar to the 2019 "Spygate" case, a substantial monetary fine is a strong possibility, though it is considered a minimum penalty for a breach of this magnitude.
Reprimand/Warning: The independent commission could issue a formal warning regarding future conduct, likely combined with a fine.
Key Factors and Rules Involved:
Rule 127: Introduced after the 2019 Leeds United incident, this rule expressly prohibits any club from "directly or indirectly observing" another team's training session within 72 hours of a scheduled match.
Rule 3.4: This requires all clubs to behave towards each other with "utmost good faith".The 2019 Precedent: Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds United were fined £200,000 in 2019 for a similar incident, but this was before Rule 127 was introduced.
Southampton's alleged breach involves the new, more strict regulations.The EFL is pushing for the independent disciplinary commission to conclude the case before the Championship play-off final on May 23, 2026
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Seems like now it is a case for lawyers. Southampton should do well if they get the lawyers representing Manchester City |  |
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| Saints charged with spying on 11:55 - May 13 with 2947 views | francisbowles |
| Saints charged with spying on 11:38 - May 13 by daveB |
The problem the EFL have now is time, and I can't see how this gets done with appeals in the next 10 days. Southampton have around 150million on the line here, they are not giving that up without a fight even if they know they are guilty. Kicking someone out of the playoffs has never been done before.
The post match by the boro manager was great and put things into perspective for m as to why it should be taken seriously.
He said along the lines of for any game you spend hours watching videos, analysing the opposition, and looking for an advantage. You give up time with your family and work into the night. If you lose because you failed to spot something they do or weren't prepared enough you have not done your job properly. It should be the harder the work the better you get. But what is the point of all that if the other team can just send someone to come and watch you train, it's a shortcut and makes a mockery of the hard work other managers are putting into it all.
I do feel for the players and fans in all this, we went through it with Faurlin and really got away with it, on the pitch I thought they deserved it last night and will be unfair for the players/fans if they are kicked out but that's all on their manager and his staff. [Post edited 13 May 11:40]
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Agreed Dave.
The Faurlin scenario was about player ownership, which had no material effect on the result of any match.
This imho is much worse as it could well have affected several games and opponents. | | | |
| Saints charged with spying on 12:14 - May 13 with 2854 views | KensalT |
| Saints charged with spying on 11:33 - May 13 by Hoopsie |
Leeds did it in the Premier League 2019 spygate being managed by Bielsa
Got a hefty £200,000 fine and a strong worded reprimand
I don’t see how they can deduct points or kick them out of playoff final since you have had precedent punishment? |
It's not a precedent:
1. There wasn't a specific offence at the time but the rules have since been changed
2. Legal precedent is a very specific thing relating to how inferior courts in the UK are bound to follow decisions of the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal. Disciplinary tribunal decisions aren't binding precedents.
As far as I know there are only two previous instances of this:
- Leeds/Bielsa where they got a slapped wrist from the EFL.
- Canada's women at the 2024 Olympics flew a drone over the Kiwis training session
In the Canada case the punishment was decided by FIFA and included:
- £189k fine
- 6 points deducted (in a tournament, not league football)
- 3 coaches sent home and subsequently banned for a year.
A decision by FIFA is also not a precedent here but it's the more recent decision and FIFA is the governing body of the world game, so it's likely to be a better guideline for what the EFL should do.
However, the Canada and Leeds things were both one-offs. There are suggestions Saints might have done this more than once. In that case the punishment could be very severe. [Post edited 13 May 12:17]
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| Saints charged with spying on 12:47 - May 13 with 2707 views | KensalT |
| Saints charged with spying on 11:55 - May 13 by francisbowles |
Agreed Dave.
The Faurlin scenario was about player ownership, which had no material effect on the result of any match.
This imho is much worse as it could well have affected several games and opponents. |
"No affect on any match"
Hmmmm, you might want to think about that one a bit.
That season Ale Faurlin played 40 league games for us with 3 goals and 2 assists.
Only Derry, Kenny, Hill, Taarabt, and Gorkss made more appearances.
If we didn't have Faurlin that season we would probably have been playing Mikele Leigertwood there instead!
I'd say Ale made a bit of a difference to us.
They can't do anything to us now. Just enjoy it. We got away with one :-)
https://fbref.com/en/squads/a7 | | | |
| Saints charged with spying on 13:06 - May 13 with 2616 views | Northernr |
Yeh we definitely got away with the Faurlin thing.
NDM and co absolutely buried them in paper to drag it all the way into the last week and put their back up against the wall.
The Sun getting a leak that we were guilty and would lose 15 points, which almost certainly came from Palios, left them wide open to a legal challenge which would have kyboshed the play offs.
And then David Pleat was employed as the impartial expert on the panel and in his testimony basically said that buying and selling players makes absolutely no material difference at all, which was incredibly helpful but to this day an amazing thing to say.
We absolutely got away with that. We played a player we should not have been able to sign for a full season, and he was fcking brilliant. |  | | |
| Saints charged with spying on 13:25 - May 13 with 2530 views | KensalT |
| Saints charged with spying on 13:06 - May 13 by Northernr |
Yeh we definitely got away with the Faurlin thing.
NDM and co absolutely buried them in paper to drag it all the way into the last week and put their back up against the wall.
The Sun getting a leak that we were guilty and would lose 15 points, which almost certainly came from Palios, left them wide open to a legal challenge which would have kyboshed the play offs.
And then David Pleat was employed as the impartial expert on the panel and in his testimony basically said that buying and selling players makes absolutely no material difference at all, which was incredibly helpful but to this day an amazing thing to say.
We absolutely got away with that. We played a player we should not have been able to sign for a full season, and he was fcking brilliant. |
But they got us back over FFP.
And some. | | | |
| Saints charged with spying on 15:36 - May 13 with 2315 views | KensalT |
| Saints charged with spying on 13:06 - May 13 by Northernr |
Yeh we definitely got away with the Faurlin thing.
NDM and co absolutely buried them in paper to drag it all the way into the last week and put their back up against the wall.
The Sun getting a leak that we were guilty and would lose 15 points, which almost certainly came from Palios, left them wide open to a legal challenge which would have kyboshed the play offs.
And then David Pleat was employed as the impartial expert on the panel and in his testimony basically said that buying and selling players makes absolutely no material difference at all, which was incredibly helpful but to this day an amazing thing to say.
We absolutely got away with that. We played a player we should not have been able to sign for a full season, and he was fcking brilliant. |
My abiding memory of the Faurlin business was how worried we were about the final verdict.
From what I've seen of Saints fans so far most of them are acting like it's no big deal, even mocking Boro by turning up to the game with binoculars.
They could have a really nasty shock coming their way.
You know the media smells blood when they start doing reconstructions :-)
[Post edited 13 May 15:41]
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| Saints charged with spying on 15:37 - May 13 with 2308 views | TheChef |
| Saints charged with spying on 15:36 - May 13 by KensalT |
My abiding memory of the Faurlin business was how worried we were about the final verdict.
From what I've seen of Saints fans so far most of them are acting like it's no big deal, even mocking Boro by turning up to the game with binoculars.
They could have a really nasty shock coming their way.
You know the media smells blood when they start doing reconstructions :-)
[Post edited 13 May 15:41]
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SSN finally gone beyond parody. [Post edited 13 May 15:56]
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| Saints charged with spying on 15:53 - May 13 with 2232 views | kensalriser |
| Saints charged with spying on 15:37 - May 13 by TheChef |
SSN finally gone beyond parody. [Post edited 13 May 15:56]
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Finally? Where have you been for transfer window week for the past god knows how many years? |  |
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| Saints charged with spying on 15:59 - May 13 with 2203 views | TheChef |
| Saints charged with spying on 15:53 - May 13 by kensalriser |
Finally? Where have you been for transfer window week for the past god knows how many years? |
Yeah I know.
But this?
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| Saints charged with spying on 16:13 - May 13 with 2146 views | MrSheen |
| Saints charged with spying on 15:36 - May 13 by KensalT |
My abiding memory of the Faurlin business was how worried we were about the final verdict.
From what I've seen of Saints fans so far most of them are acting like it's no big deal, even mocking Boro by turning up to the game with binoculars.
They could have a really nasty shock coming their way.
You know the media smells blood when they start doing reconstructions :-)
[Post edited 13 May 15:41]
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Live from the grassy knoll. | | | |
| Saints charged with spying on 16:56 - May 13 with 2034 views | BrianMcCarthy |
Surely this "Spy Gate-gate"?
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| Saints charged with spying on 17:05 - May 13 with 2012 views | Northernr |
This is a very poor episode of Poirot. | | | |
| Saints charged with spying on 17:45 - May 13 with 1889 views | daveB |
| Saints charged with spying on 13:25 - May 13 by KensalT |
But they got us back over FFP.
And some. |
well lets be fair, we did break the rules again and delayed them doing anything to us for about 3 years hoping it would go away. |  | | |
| Saints charged with spying on 17:50 - May 13 with 1876 views | KensalT |
Silly sod used his bank card to buy coffee at the location he was spying on.
Spies ain't what they used to be.
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| Saints charged with spying on 18:03 - May 13 with 1846 views | nick_hammersmith |
| Saints charged with spying on 17:50 - May 13 by KensalT |
Silly sod used his bank card to buy coffee at the location he was spying on.
Spies ain't what they used to be.
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Looks like he's not worth his Salt |  | | |
| Saints charged with spying on 18:05 - May 13 with 1842 views | KensalT |
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| Saints charged with spying on 18:25 - May 13 with 1765 views | dmm |
I know this is a serious issue but the entertainment factor increases by the hour. More please. |  | | |
| Saints charged with spying on 18:33 - May 13 with 1726 views | R_from_afar |
| Saints charged with spying on 17:50 - May 13 by KensalT |
Silly sod used his bank card to buy coffee at the location he was spying on.
Spies ain't what they used to be.
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A schoolboy error by Southampton, why on earth didn't they send their resident sleuth?
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| "Things had started becoming increasingly desperate at Loftus Road but QPR have been handed a massive lifeline and the place has absolutely erupted. it's carnage. It's bedlam. It's 1-1." |
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| Saints charged with spying on 18:34 - May 13 with 1716 views | Northernr |
Has anyone checked whether he’s seen Justin Obikwu? | | | |
| Saints charged with spying on 18:34 - May 13 with 1713 views | lassel |
They’ll get a fine and will pay a private fine if/when sued by Boro outside the FL process and still end up £145m up. | | | |
| Saints charged with spying on 18:35 - May 13 with 1708 views | R_from_afar |
| Saints charged with spying on 11:14 - May 13 by Northernr |
Not a one off it seems...
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But hang on a minute, surely Boro would've had to spy on Southampton in order to ascertain that they were spying?  | |
| "Things had started becoming increasingly desperate at Loftus Road but QPR have been handed a massive lifeline and the place has absolutely erupted. it's carnage. It's bedlam. It's 1-1." |
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