Saturday’s play-off final has been shrouded in controversy and uncertainty for over a week
Will Hull City fans actually be able to enjoy the Wembley build-up at some point?(Image: Joe Prior/Visionhaus via Getty Images)
Southampton’s behaviour in the past few days has been everything that’s wrong with football, and chief executive Phil Parson’s tone sums up their arrogance.
Southampton have made it hard to believe they’re really remorseful. They’re only sorry they got caught and won’t have the chance to compete in the £200m final against Hull City, the only legitimate finalist.
Yes, there will be those who say the punishment doesn’t fit the crime. But what should it be? Southampton has engaged in a programme of systemic cheating for the last five months, basically since Tonda Eckert arrived, and given the nature of the competition, what else would be reasonable? A fine certainly wouldn’t.
The fact that they were concocting images of the young man tasked with spying suggests it was an internal joke. Southampton had planned for him to spend two nights on Teesside before he was caught by Boro staff.
It’s a saga that has just worn everybody out over the past few days, and spoiled what should be a magical build-up to the most valuable game in world football.
Southampton, as we said last week, are the ones who have lacked any kind of respect for their own club, staff and supporters, let alone those of every other club in the Championship. They’re only bothered that they’ve been caught and the realisation of missing out on the play-off final has landed. Their supporters have lost, too.
The whole situation is tiring. Everybody from a City perspective is worn out and just wants the game to go ahead now. Tickets have been ordered, and travel booked at a significant expense. City’s ticket sales have ground to a halt at around 33,000, staff behind the scenes have just lost a degree of heart because of the whole sorry saga inflicted upon them at a time when it should be all hands to the pump, but with a special atmosphere. That’s gone.
What should have been a magical build-up to Wembley, all the excitement and buzz of playing in such a game, has been lost. It feels like the life has been sucked out of it, and that’s sad. Entirely Southampton’s fault, by the way. Fortunately, Sergej Jakirovic has been able to shield his players from the circus going on around the game, and they have a huge job to focus on.
As we’ve said previously, City and their supporters have been the forgotten party in all of this, by almost everybody. City have been offered no courtesy.
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If the panel had awarded Boro a 3-0 win from the first leg, that would have been a cleaner way of managing this situation, and then the Teesside outfit would have been in the final legitimately.
As it stands, they’ve been shoehorned in by default, and that also doesn’t feel right given they lost the second leg because they weren’t good enough over 120 minutes on the night. Any talk of City putting pressure on to get a free bye into the Premier League is wide of the mark. While that topic will have been discussed privately, that’s not a realistic outcome and nor should it be. City must maintain a dignified stance and avoid being drawn into public discourse.
Once the final decision comes from the appeal, this whole sorry saga needs putting to bed and allow staff, players and fans to actually enjoy at least one day of build-up before the biggest game of their lives, but shame on Southampton. You and your behaviour have brought the game into disrepute.
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