Southampton has been thrown out of Saturday’s Championship playoff final — the richest game in world soccer — after being found guilty of spying on semifinal opponent Middlesbrough, in one of the harshest punishments imposed in the English game.
Tuesday’s decision by an English Football League-appointed Independent Disciplinary Commission dramatically rewrites the second-tier promotion ?race and hands Boro an unlikely reprieve after it lost 2-1 on aggregate to Southampton in the semis.
Middlesbrough has now been reinstated ?and will ?face Hull City at Wembley on Saturday in a match routinely dubbed the richest in world soccer ?because of the financial windfall attached to promotion to the Premier League.
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