The independent hearing into ‘Spygate’ is set to take place on Friday to determine the fate of Southampton’s promotion aspirations. A panel of three legal experts is expected to convene in London behind closed doors.
The panel will scrutinise the charges – and holds the authority to expel Southampton from the competition if found guilty. However, this would trigger a legal challenge from Southampton’s owners ‘Sport Republic’, which would need to be heard this weekend should the play-off final still proceed at Wembley on May 23.
The EFL have been unable to confirm what time the match will kick off. In the meantime, Hull have been left in an agonising state of uncertainty as a consequence of the scandal. The Tigers have since appealed for patience from frustrated supporters, who have been unable to purchase tickets or arrange travel to London. Tickets will neither be printed nor made available until the outcome of the hearing has been confirmed.
The Tigers released a statement advising that full details of the ticket sales process would be communicated “in due course”. The statement read: “Until then, we kindly ask supporters to refrain from contacting the ticket office while final details are being confirmed. We appreciate your continued patience and support.”
Middlesbrough boss Kim Hellberg was asked about the incident after Tuesday’s defeat against Southampton, with the Swede saying: “I have worked for 15 years as a coach, trying to get to the Premier League.
“When you go home to your family and say, ‘no, I’m not coming home, I’m going to watch more Southampton games because I need to see it’, and you’re going into the play-offs… this is the thing. If we wouldn’t have caught that man who they sent up, five hours to drive, you would sit here and say, ‘well done in the tactical aspect of the game’, and I would go home and feel like I had failed to get my players ready.”
He added: “When that is taken away from you in that way, when someone decides, ‘we’re not going to watch every game, we’re going to send someone instead and film the session and see everything’, and hope they don’t get caught, I guess that is why he was switching clothes and all these things – I can say it because I know it happened. t breaks my heart in terms of all the things I believe in. They are my feelings about it. I think it’s disgraceful. It makes me very sad.”
