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Saints Charged With Spying on Mboro Training

St Chalet

By St Chalet
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James

James

Posted
Posted
2 minutes ago, obelisk said:

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/may/10/southampton-spygate-middlesbrough-championship-playoffs

They're all at it now. Any chance that Saints could join in and accuse others of lurking in trees at Staplewood?

What a load of nonsense. Other teams think we might have spied on them because we played well against them? But equally could be because we’ve got a good manager. The standard of journalism really is hitting new lows over this.

  • Like 1
AlexLaw76

AlexLaw76

Posted
Posted
Just now, James said:

What a load of nonsense. Other teams think we might have spied on them because we played well against them? But equally could be because we’ve got a good manager. The standard of journalism really is hitting new lows over this.

Boro must have spied on Saints given the whacking we got earlier in the season

  • Like 2
DellBlockH

DellBlockH

Posted
Posted

This is all getting very silly but, I appreciate, could be very serious.

If we have done this at Middlesbrough (and the club has not yet denied it publically) that is bad enough. It could result in a large fine and, possibly, a points deduction next season. I can't see the play-offs being affected at this late stage. If nothing else, yesterday's performance showed that we definitely didnt gain any advantage by the alleged spying.

But the suggestion that we have done this elsewhere is worrying. But how likely is it? How many other clubs have training grounds viewable from public areas? Staplewood is fairly difficult to see. Millwall, I understand, train in a local park. I know you you can see at least part of Charlton's training ground from a public road. Does observing from a public area really count as spying? After all, anybody could do it whether they are officially connected with SFC or not.

And, if we're really doing this, it seems unlikely that other clubs aren't also doing it. Do they really want everyone going through CCTV if their analysts might pop up elsewhere? Of course, CCTV is unlikely to have been kept beyond a few days and what's it going to show? Blurry images of someone who might or might not be a Southampton (or, say, Coventry) analyst. 

Teamsaint1

Teamsaint1

Posted
Posted
18 minutes ago, James said:

What a load of nonsense. Other teams think we might have spied on them because we played well against them? But equally could be because we’ve got a good manager. The standard of journalism really is hitting new lows over this.

And the mainstream media have failed to mention the situation that a day previously the alleged actions would have been within the rules. As they would have been more than  72 hours before any other game .  OK, so our schedule has been about a game every 36 hours, but even so…..

You might also think that knowingly sending somebody who is on the books ,to check in to Gibson’s hotel a few days before such a huge game might have been something that our management contemplated pretty carefully. 

sfc4prem

sfc4prem

Posted
Posted

Boro fans saying that the severity of this case is very high. People like Graeme Bailey (journo) demanding a 2nd leg with no home fans. Other commenters, partocularly northern, pushing for us to be kicked out. Many Boro fans saying the only people not seeing the severity of the situation are us, the Saints fans.

It's not that fucking serious, right? Even if we've been doing it all season, realistically how many tangible advantages does it give in game?

sfc4prem

sfc4prem

Posted
Posted

Also, can you imagine if it arises rhat other clubs are doing this? Perhaps Dragan should invest some funds in digging up some dirt on other EFL clubs as part of our defence?

Football Special

Football Special

Posted
Posted
37 minutes ago, obelisk said:

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/may/10/southampton-spygate-middlesbrough-championship-playoffs

They're all at it now. Any chance that Saints could join in and accuse others of lurking in trees at Staplewood?

Middlesbrough are also expected to remind the commission – which has been assembled and will be chaired by a lawyer – that in 2024, the Canada Women coach, Bev Priestman, and two of her staff were banned from football for 12 months after spying on New Zealand at the Paris Olympics. Canada were also docked six Olympic points. 

SWLondon Saint

SWLondon Saint

Posted
Posted
35 minutes ago, obelisk said:

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/may/10/southampton-spygate-middlesbrough-championship-playoffs

They're all at it now. Any chance that Saints could join in and accuse others of lurking in trees at Staplewood?

Sorry, but that article is complete unfounded bollocks. Nothing is proven at this point so this is pure speculation, and the journo should not be writing shit like 'Southampton may claim the staff member is an intern' when they know absolutely nothing. EFL charges apparently rely heavily on witness statements - and if the only witnesses we've heard from are all Boro staff, it's hardly likely to provide a balanced opinion.

  • Like 2
Saint NL

Saint NL

Posted
Posted
3 minutes ago, sfc4prem said:

Boro fans saying that the severity of this case is very high. People like Graeme Bailey (journo) demanding a 2nd leg with no home fans. Other commenters, partocularly northern, pushing for us to be kicked out. Many Boro fans saying the only people not seeing the severity of the situation are us, the Saints fans.

It's not that fucking serious, right? Even if we've been doing it all season, realistically how many tangible advantages does it give in game?

Go on Reddit and read the /championship comments about this. A large majority of other teams fans think it's a joke, only the Boro fans are getting their knickers in a twist. 

James

James

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, SWLondon Saint said:

Sorry, but that article is complete unfounded bollocks. Nothing is proven at this point so this is pure speculation, and the journo should not be writing shit like 'Southampton may claim the staff member is an intern' when they know absolutely nothing. EFL charges apparently rely heavily on witness statements - and if the only witnesses we've heard from are all Boro staff, it's hardly likely to provide a balanced opinion.

The article is embarrassing. The headline implies other clubs have actually come forward but they haven’t, they are just “surprised” that we managed to counter their tactics in recent games which, according to the article, could either be because of spying or, alternatively, the tactical prowess of our own manager. Seriously, how does some of this tripe get published? It reads like one of those BS click bait website articles. 

  • Like 1
RedArmy

RedArmy

Posted
Posted
6 minutes ago, sfc4prem said:

Boro fans saying that the severity of this case is very high. People like Graeme Bailey (journo) demanding a 2nd leg with no home fans. Other commenters, partocularly northern, pushing for us to be kicked out. Many Boro fans saying the only people not seeing the severity of the situation are us, the Saints fans.

It's not that fucking serious, right? Even if we've been doing it all season, realistically how many tangible advantages does it give in game?

Your first mistake was listening to Boro fans. 
 

They seem to all* be suffering from headlossitis due to finishing 5th in a 2 horse race. 
 

*to be fair they’ve got a few level headed fans that know it’ll just be a rather large fine. But they get shouted down by the mongs. 

  • Like 1
Badger

Badger

Posted
Posted
3 minutes ago, sfc4prem said:


It's not that fucking serious, right? Even if we've been doing it all season, realistically how many tangible advantages does it give in game?


Is that a serious question you start with ? The FA/EFL answer would be that a)it undermines the spirit of the game, andb) it’s against regulations. No further explanation should be necessary. *

It’s not a question of what if any advantage has been gained, it’s more about whether and why it has happened at all. 

* it’s also irrelevant if  the practice is commonplace in the game, 
 

 

Badger

Badger

Posted
Posted
38 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

Boro must have spied on Saints given the whacking we got earlier in the season

Proof indeed that we were spying on Middlesbrough earlier in the season ! 

obelisk

obelisk

Posted
Posted
3 minutes ago, James said:

It reads like one of those BS click bait website articles.

There's a lot of those on the Guardian these days.

SWLondon Saint

SWLondon Saint

Posted
Posted

The number of holes in the whole thing are just ridiculous. If you were getting someone to spy, how fucking thick would you have to be to check them into a hotel under their real name, which they have on your website? When confronted by a random angry other private citizen, who the f*** is going to tell them their name when most people wouldn't give an angry officious rando the time of day? Or delete anything off their phone?

SaintlyAnd

SaintlyAnd

Posted
Posted
46 minutes ago, obelisk said:

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/may/10/southampton-spygate-middlesbrough-championship-playoffs

They're all at it now. Any chance that Saints could join in and accuse others of lurking in trees at Staplewood?

I think there’ll be more articles like this (no evidence but stirring things up) between now and the game. Boro leaking bits to the newspapers and trying to destabilise Saints.

  • Like 1
James

James

Posted
Posted
Just now, SWLondon Saint said:

The number of holes in the whole thing are just ridiculous. If you were getting someone to spy, how fucking thick would you have to be to check them into a hotel under their real name, which they have on your website? When confronted by a random angry other private citizen, who the f*** is going to tell them their name when most people wouldn't give an angry officious rando the time of day? Or delete anything off their phone?

Apparently the whole case is based on “witness statements” which presumably are all from Boro staff members. Sounds like a fair process that.

Boro fans really have lost their heads about this. Hope we batter them on Tuesday. 

LGTL

LGTL

Posted
Posted

All these other clubs were strangely quiet until now weren’t they? It’s completely irrelevant other clubs getting involved anyway as there’s fuck all evidence for that except ‘they played well’.

We’ll be judged for one incident of an intern looking over a hill using an iPhone. Read that sentence again, couple it up with Boro fans demanding expulsion and 10 point deductions, and then realise they’ve collectively lost their minds. 

Badger

Badger

Posted
Posted
3 minutes ago, saintant said:

What a stupid article in the Guardian. No facts, no evidence just join in the pile on with a bunch of fictitious garbage.

Surprised the Gruaniad have time to waste on this, thought they’d be too busy wanking over Polanski 

  • Haha 1
RedArmy

RedArmy

Posted
Posted

I really worry for these Boro fans mental state when we just get fined and then go and win the playoffs and get promoted. 

I hope they’ve got support in place and people around them to help them through it. 

Badger

Badger

Posted
Posted
4 minutes ago, obelisk said:

So does VAR.

Except VAR operates within the rules of the game and seeks to enforce them. That’s the theory anyway. 

Toussaint

Toussaint

Posted
Posted

My legal experts viewed, aka chat gpt

 

And I think your position — “innocent until proven guilty” — is actually the more rational one at this stage.

A few things are getting conflated online:

  1. The presence of a staff member
    That seems increasingly hard to dispute. Multiple reports now say Middlesbrough identified a Southampton analyst via CCTV and staff profiles.
  2. What he was actually doing
    Still not fully public. Reports say “filming” or “taking pictures”, but nobody outside the investigation has seen:
  • footage,
  • timestamps,
  • extent of recording,
  • or whether anything useful was even captured.
  1. Whether the club directed it
    This is the massive leap many fans are making without evidence.

People often treat “club cooperation” and “no public defence” as an implicit confession, but legally and strategically that’s very normal behaviour. Southampton are in an ongoing disciplinary process. Any competent legal adviser would tell them:

  • don’t inflame it publicly,
  • don’t contradict facts before disclosure,
  • cooperate with the EFL,
  • avoid turning a procedural case into a PR war.

Especially in football, silence is often just process management.

The other thing happening is classic football tribalism. Once “spying” enters the discourse, people mentally jump to:

  • Bielsa,
  • drones,
  • espionage,
  • systematic cheating.

But the actual facts currently public are much narrower:

an analyst allegedly observed and recorded a training session inside the prohibited window.

That alone could still breach EFL rules, even without sinister intent.

What is potentially damaging for Southampton is that Middlesbrough’s manager, Kim Hellberg, has gone very strong publicly — using words like “cheating” and claiming Southampton anticipated a tactical tweak Boro had never used before.

That shapes public perception enormously, even though it still isn’t proof.

And forums like SaintsWeb tend to polarise fast:

  • one side goes full siege mentality,
  • the other catastrophises and assumes cover-up.

Reality is usually duller:

  • an overzealous analyst,
  • a breach of protocol,
  • a fine,
  • maybe internal disciplinary action,
  • then everyone moves on after a month.

The fact the EFL charged the club quickly suggests they think some rule breach probably occurred. But there’s still a huge distance between:

“a staff member shouldn’t have been there”
and
“Southampton orchestrated systematic espionage.”

obelisk

obelisk

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, Toussaint said:

Multiple reports now say Middlesbrough identified a Southampton analyst via CCTV and staff profiles

So they were spying on him then?

  • Haha 1
Badger

Badger

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, obelisk said:

So they were spying on him then?

Cunts. Isn’t that an infringement of his civil liberties? Guardian will be all over this. 

  • Haha 1
obelisk

obelisk

Posted
Posted
4 minutes ago, Toussaint said:

Southampton anticipated a tactical tweak Boro had never used before

Did they? There was no evidence of that in the first half.

  • Like 1
James G

James G

Posted
Posted
17 minutes ago, Saint NL said:

Go on Reddit and read the /championship comments about this. A large majority of other teams fans think it's a joke, only the Boro fans are getting their knickers in a twist. 

Both team supporters are defensive. Neutrals are just generally finding it funny, a guy hiding in a bush.

They'll say cheating of the highest order, we'll say it's not in the spirit of the game

Without it all happening, it'd just be the usual, where do you park and what pubs are good to drink at

It's just a shame it happened and spoilt what should have been two good games

But regardless of what anyone is saying, we don't what happened, we don't know the context. When we do, whatever will be will be, and both parties will just need to move on

Willo of Whiteley

Willo of Whiteley

Posted
Posted
4 minutes ago, benjii said:

If we get off, we should sue Hellberg for the lolz. 

Isn’t it borderline libel what he said in the post match comments?

Basically he couldn’t give a toss pre-match and as soon as the drew the game from the own incompetence at finishing his stance changed.

Appy

Appy

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, Willo of Whiteley said:

Isn’t it borderline libel what he said in the post match comments?

Basically he couldn’t give a toss pre-match and as soon as the drew the game from the own incompetence at finishing his stance changed.

Pure deflection from him, I’m seeing Boro fans comparing him with Pep, when the truth is he bottled automatic promotion and finished below us despite being 18 points ahead in February. 

skintsaint

skintsaint

Posted
Posted
34 minutes ago, sfc4prem said:

Boro fans saying that the severity of this case is very high. People like Graeme Bailey (journo) demanding a 2nd leg with no home fans. Other commenters, partocularly northern, pushing for us to be kicked out. Many Boro fans saying the only people not seeing the severity of the situation are us, the Saints fans.

It's not that fucking serious, right? Even if we've been doing it all season, realistically how many tangible advantages does it give in game?

They didnt even turn up for a game a few years and got a 3 point deduction. Less serious than that. Can see minus 1 or 2 point deduction for our next season in the EFL on top of a fine.

  • Like 1
benjii

benjii

Posted
Posted (edited)
10 minutes ago, Willo of Whiteley said:

Isn’t it borderline libel what he said in the post match comments?

Basically he couldn’t give a toss pre-match and as soon as the drew the game from the own incompetence at finishing his stance changed.

If we're shown not to have done anything wrong then it absolutely is defamatory. He didn’t say we had been charged, he said we had cheated and implied we had done it lots of times.

Definitely actionable if not shown to be true. 

No point suing him, other than for fun, though. 

Edited by benjii
  • Like 2
Doctoroncall

Doctoroncall

Posted
Posted
12 minutes ago, Willo of Whiteley said:

Isn’t it borderline libel what he said in the post match comments?

Basically he couldn’t give a toss pre-match and as soon as the drew the game from the own incompetence at finishing his stance changed.

Slander not libel. Depends on the outcome of this case. 

  • Like 1
EssEffCee

EssEffCee

Posted
Posted

Loads of bollocks going around as you'd expect which will only ramp up but there's only one thing that we can be absolutely certain of at this point.

The reaction from Boro fans over this is the biggest collective meltdown of football fans in the history of the internet.

  • Like 3
Hussar Saint

Hussar Saint

Posted
Posted
4 hours ago, CB Fry said:

Enough for the club to be incapable of issuing any kind of denial of repudiation whatsoever over 48 hours on.

You’re getting off on this aren’t you?

feckin weirdo! 

  • Like 2
Willo of Whiteley

Willo of Whiteley

Posted
Posted
3 minutes ago, Hussar Saint said:

You’re getting off on this aren’t you?

feckin weirdo! 

Certain fans get a thrill out of seeing their club burn. Never seen CB as that kind of person though. DT yes. CB no.

But also, it’s a fine line between coming out and denying when we’ve been charged, so there clearly something there.

The statement could be a lot stronger, but also if we are fully guilty then I can understand why the club have stayed silent.

It doesn’t look great, but equally I’m quite content with the experts and lawyers behind the scenes dealing with it and sharing news when there is news to share, rather than all these journos and conspiracy theorists smashing out ever possible scenario.

  • Like 1
Convict Colony

Convict Colony

Posted
Posted

Honestly seeing shit like "suspicions" from other clubs about this is utter bollocks.

Evidence or shut up.

Haters hate upwards, no one was complaining when we lost to oxford, hull and boro over xmas.

Convict Colony

Convict Colony

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, HedgeEnder said:

According to the Echo we’re unlikely to contest the charge at the hearing 

why bother you cant refute it, swallow it and move on and improve our spying skills.

Pay the fine and accept points deduction for next time in championship and make sure we are promoted this season.

  • Like 2
Saint Pete

Saint Pete

Posted
Posted
31 minutes ago, benjii said:

If we're shown not to have done anything wrong then it absolutely is defamatory. He didn’t say we had been charged, he said we had cheated and implied we had done it lots of times.

Definitely actionable if not shown to be true. 

No point suing him, other than for fun, though. 

We could report him to the EFL for wrongly accusing us (if we are found innocent), that would also be fun! 

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