Right, but first, let’s get some breaking news from Southampton because the club have just released a statement about their expulsion from the Championship playoff final against Hull, a penalty they are appealing at a hearing today. Mark McAdam joins us now live. Look, Mark, could you take us through the statement, please?
Yes, so, Vicki, this statement has just been released by Southampton Football Club. We’re just taking our time to digest it, but I think it’s important because of the nature of this story, because of the nature of this situation that involves this football club. We give you the statement in full here on Sky Sports News.
The statement comes from CEO Phil Parsons, who sets out Southampton’s appeal against yesterday’s expulsion from the playoffs and four-point deduction for next season. He details the club’s response and what is at stake.
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want to address our supporters, our players, and the wider football community directly and without equivocation. What happened was wrong. The club have admitted breaches of EFL regulations 3.4 and 1.7. We are sorry to the other clubs involved, and most of all to the Southampton supporters whose extraordinary loyalty and support this season deserved better from the club.
We have provided our full cooperation to the EFL’s investigation and disciplinary process. Following the appeal, we will also be writing to the EFL to volunteer our participation in a working group on the practical application and enforcement of Regulation 127 across the Championship.
Southampton await play-off expulsion appeal decision after condemning ‘disproportionate’ punishment
Contrition without change is hollow, and we intend to demonstrate. Regarding the appeal itself, we accept that a sanction is warranted. sanction. What we cannot accept is a sanction which bears no proportion to the offence. Whereas Leeds United were fined £200,000 for a similar offence, Southampton has been denied the opportunity to compete in a game worth more than £200 million and one which means so much to our staff, players, and supporters.
We believe the financial impact of yesterday’s ruling represents, by a considerable margin, the largest penalty ever imposed in English football. For context, Luton Town’s 30-point deduction in 2008-09, previously the most severe sporting sanction, was applied when they were already in League Two, with much lower revenue at stake.
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Derby County’s 21-point deduction in 2021 cost them their chance of winning the championship. Everton’s eventual 6-point deduction in 23-4 followed losses of £124.5 million, a figure dwarfed by what has been taken from Southampton in a single afternoon. The largest financial penalty ever levied by the Premier League against Chelsea in March of this year was just 10.
75 million and was accompanied by no sporting sanction whatsoever, despite involving 47.5 million pounds in undisclosed payments over 7 years. We say this not to minimise what has occurred at this club, which we have accepted was wrong. We say it because proportionality is itself a principle of natural justice.
The commission was not entitled to impose a sanction. It was not, we will argue, entitled to impose one that is manifestly disproportionate to every previous sanction in the history of the English game. Our appeal will be heard today, and we will provide a further update in due course. Well, that’s the statement that’s just been released by Southampton Football Club from their CEO, Phil Parsons, in the last few days. A lot of information, a lot of detail, a lot for the fans to digest and understand.
And, of course, they’ve looked at many other examples of football clubs that perhaps made mistakes in the past. And that’s one thing that comes out of that statement: they say what happened was wrong and admit their guilt, but they do not feel the punishment fits the crime. the crime.
We are awaiting news from the arbitration panel, which is meeting today to review Southampton’s appeal. We got the statement yesterday around 6:45, Vicky, so maybe at a similar time, we will expect to hear some more details, but of course, here at the training ground, this story is continuing to send shockwaves through the football club, the supporters, the players, the fans and everyone connected to those clubs involved with this situation.
It’s an extraordinary story. We’ve just had Southampton’s statement here on Sky Sports News. An incredible day.
