Southampton have lodged an appeal after being removed from the Championship play-offs and hit with a points deduction, calling the punishment ‘manifestly disproportionate’ compared with previous sanctions in English football. An independent EFL disciplinary commission expelled the club from the play-offs on Tuesday and reinstated Middlesbrough, who will now face Hull City in Saturday’s final.
The club has also been penalised with a four-point deduction for the next Championship season after admitting breaches of two EFL regulations. Chief executive Phil Parsons issued an apology to the other clubs involved and, particularly, to Southampton supporters, saying they deserved better from the club.
Southampton’s appeal will be considered later on Wednesday by an independent league arbitration panel. Parsons acknowledged the club’s wrongdoing but said it could not accept a sanction that bears no proportion to the offence.
The club pointed to the £200,000 fine given to Leeds United in 2019 for spying on Derby as evidence of precedent. However, Southampton noted that regulation 127 — the rule that specifically forbids observing an opponent within 72 hours of a match — was introduced after the Leeds case, and did not exist when that fine was imposed.
Parsons added that the decision prevented Southampton from competing in a match the club says is worth more than £200m and matters greatly to staff, players and supporters. He argued the financial impact of the ruling makes it, by a significant margin, the largest penalty ever imposed on an English football club.
