Why ‘spygate 2.0’ could massively disrupt Southampton’s Premier League push | OneFootball

Trouble is brewing in the Championship ahead of Middlesbrough and Southampton’s play-off semi-final after the north-east club accused their southern counterpart of sending a spy to observe their training.

According to reports, Boro staff approached a man spotted taking photos and videos outside their Rockliffe Park training complex.

They asked him to delete the photos, show his identity and give a reason as to why he was there, but instead of that, the man fled to a nearby indoor part of the training complex.

Going full Mission Impossible, the man is reported to have then tried to change his appearance before leaving the training ground entirely.

The BBC reports that the man in question was Southampton’s performance analyst who is unlikely to have travelled 300 miles for a Thursday afternoon stroll.

There will be some of you reading this and thinking you’ve heard this all before and there’s good reason behind it because an almost identical incident happened seven years ago.

Leeds boss Marcelo Bielsa admitted to sending a member of staff to spy on Derby County ahead of their match in 2019.

Bielsa suggested it was common practice in his home region and thought nothing of it while Derby manager Frank Lampard was furious.

At the time, the EFL didn’t really have a rule for this kind of thing, so charged Leeds with not acting in “good faith” and as a result, introduced a new rule.

EFL rule 127 states: “Without prejudice to the requirements of Regulation 3.4 (that each Club shall behave towards each other Club with the utmost good faith), no Club shall directly or indirectly observe (or attempt to observe) another Club’s training session in the period of 72 hours prior to any match scheduled to be played between those respective Clubs.”

So while the rest of us find it quite funny, Middlesbrough have a right to be annoyed and Southampton could face more than just a £200k fine.

An EFL spokesperson said they had written to Southampton following a complaint from Middlesbrough and it is being treated as “potential misconduct.” The league is now waiting for “observations” from the St Mary’s club but what comes next if they are guilty is up for debate.

The EFL rule in question does not state a clear punishment for such an offence and so, if found guilty, Southampton could be subject to whatever the EFL deems fit.

In theory, that could be anything from points deductions to fines to transfer embargoes but none of this is likely to be sorted before the first leg on Saturday.

So you can expect plenty of booing from the home crowd and watch out for a potentially frosty handshake between Kim Hellberg and Tonda Eckert…