Southampton have lost their appeal against their expulsion from the Championship (second-tier) play-offs, the club announced on Wednesday.
Middlesbrough will instead face Hull in Saturday’s play-off final for a place in the Premier League, the English Football League (EFL) confirmed.
Southampton admitted to spying on a training session at Oxford in December and one at Ipswich in April, in addition to recently before beating play-off semi-final opponents Middlesbrough. All three incidents occurred after Tonda Eckert was named as coach in December.
Southampton earlier said the decision to expel them from the play-offs is “manifestly disproportionate” to any other sanction handed down in the history of the English game.
An independent commission this week imposed the penalty – and docked four points for next season - denying Southampton the chance of a shot at promotion to the Premier League worth an estimated £200 million ($268 million) at a minimum.
Saints chief executive Phil Parsons apologized to supporters for the conduct of club staff but the club are adamant the penalty is far too harsh.
“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,” Parsons said before losing Wednesday's appeal.
“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.”
He added Leeds had been fined £200,000 for a similar offence, and added: “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.
“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.”
Parsons said what the club had done was “wrong” and said Southampton were “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.”
Middlesbrough had called for Southampton to be thrown out of the play-offs prior to Tuesday’s commission hearing and welcomed the news they had been expelled.
The club said the sanction “sends out a clear message for the future of our game regarding sporting integrity and conduct.”
On Wednesday afternoon, Boro began selling tickets to their fans for Saturday’s Wembley showpiece.
