Salford City manager Karl Robinson branded Southampton FC’s conduct “a disgrace” after the club were expelled from the Championship play-off final for spying on other teams’ training sessions.
The Saints were due to play at Wembley Stadium two days before Salford City’s League Two play-off final against Notts County kicks off on Monday, 25 May.
But an unprecedented decision by an independent commission has denied the Saints a chance to compete for Premier League promotion, which is estimated to be worth at least £200 million.
The club have also been docked four points for next season, with Middlesbrough reinstated to the play-offs and set to take Southampton’s place in Saturday’s final against Hull.
Southampton have logged an appeal against the ‘spygate scandal’ sanction, which the club says is the “largest ever” punishment in English football and “bears no proportion to the offence.”
The English Football League charged the second-tier club with watching training sessions involving Oxford United and Ipswich Town, in addition to filming Middlesbrough as they prepared for the first leg of their play-off semi-final on 7 May.
Southampton were beaten by Oxford United 2-0 in December and drew with Ipswich 2-2.
The Hampshire outfit have appealed the penalty and will be heard by an independent league arbitration panel later on Wednesday.
However, speaking to the press ahead of Salford City’s play-off final, Robinson launched a scathing rebuke of the club’s move to observe teams’ training sessions, saying it is “against every aspect of what I believe football is.”
The outspoken 45-year-old coach branded the club’s actions a “disgrace.”
“It’s not acceptable,” he said firmly. “It’s not the culture of this country and how we do it.”
He added: “We all seek to gain margins when we are going to compete week in, week out.
“And we are challenged, sometimes going into the unknown. Once the unknown is there to be seen, we then have a duty of care to do everything we possibly can to win a game of football.”
He acknowledged that people may have different tolerances for what they judge to be blatant cheating in football: “There may be players who go over softly or waste time, but these are all within the rules of the game.
“But to go onto private property and to do what they’ve done, I don’t think it’s acceptable behaviour whatsoever.”
The EFL charge came last week after Southampton analyst, William Salt, allegedly filmed Middlesbrough’s training session 48 hours before the teams met in the play-off semi-final first leg.
That match finished 0-0, but Southampton booked their place in the Championship play-off final with a stoppage-time goal in the second leg at St Mary’s.
All three incidents the Saints admitted came after German head coach Tonda Eckert was appointed as the club’s permanent head coach in December 2025.
Robinson, who noted that he would “like to work in Europe in the future”, recognised that approaches to filming training may be different on the continent.
“If was to go and work abroad, which one day I do want to work abroad, I will fall into line with the culture of that country.
“I will fall into line with the people, I’ll fall into line with the integrity in which they live their lives and in which they play their sport.
“So I’d expect exactly the same when coaches come from abroad into this country. Yeah, yeah. And most of them do.”
If Southampton’s appeal is unsuccessful, they will have been denied the opportunity to contest the game dubbed the richest in football.
Championship play-off final victors are guaranteed a minimum £110m in Premier League broadcast revenue. While the revenue at stake when Salford face Notts County pales into comparison to that eye-watering prize, Monday’s showdown is just as important to the Ammies.
It comes at the end of Salford’s seventh consecutive season in League Two.
While the season has thrown up the spectacular highs of a record-breaking FA Cup run, which ended at Manchester City in the fourth round and signs of progress are evident in the club’s highest-ever finish, a win on Monday would quash claims that the club have stagnated in the fourth tier.
This play-off final weekend could throw up several remarkable firsts. Middlesbrough could become the first team to reach the Premier League despite losing a play-off semi-final, and Salford – perhaps less extraordinarily – may earn promotion to League One at the seventh time of asking.
