Stupid Southampton can have no complaints over Spygate punishment after appeal snub

Southampton have appealed the decision which has seen them kicked out of the Championship play-off final and replaced by Middlesbrough, the side they beat in the semi-finals

Sending an intern and his iPhone to stand next to a tree at a bog-standard football training session? Call that a genuine cheating scandal?

Here’s proper cheating. Cyclists extracting their own blood, putting it in a fridge and then re-infusing it before a race to increase red blood cell counts, as in the Lance Armstrong case.

Here’s proper cheating. An England cricket captain surreptitiously applying dirt to a ball to try and affect its movement, as in the Michael Atherton case.

Here’s proper cheating. A figure skater conspiring with her ex-husband to hire an assailant to break the knee of her main rival, as in the Tonya Harding case.

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You could go on and on. At the 2000 Paralympic Games in Sydney, it was discovered that 10 of the 12 Spanish basketball players were not actually handicapped and had deliberately failed an IQ test to feign an intellectual impairment.

In the grand scheme of things, Southampton’s misdemeanour was minor. But in the context of English football, its ramifications, and the money at stake, the event was seismic. The reaction of a lot of ex-professionals such as Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer - saying the punishment seems disproportionate - suggests an offence that might be a lot more common than most think.

But it is one of the worst examples of cheating in modern sport because a) it was spectacularly amateurish and b) it was done ahead of a tie that took Southampton into the richest one-off game in sport.

If they were caught - and there is every chance a bloke stood next to a tree pointing his iPhone at something he shouldn’t will be caught - the possible consequences should have been obvious.

It was two-bob cheating with £200million at stake. Those who sanctioned the chicanery can have no future at the club.

The Saints are not sport’s biggest sinners … but they are most definitely the most stupid. And that is why, after the Southampton appeal was rejected, the play-off final will be between Hull City and a team that was beaten in the semi-final stage.

Being stupid has led to a mess of royal proportions. Now, Hull City, who got to the final by fair means, are examining their legal situation, their owner pointing out that they have been preparing for a match against Southampton and, now, their opponents in a £200million match have been changed at the last minute. Middlesbrough are very different from Southampton.

You get Hull’s point. How can that be fair? And if they are beaten to a Premier League place by a team that LOST its two-legged semi-final tie, how are they going to feel?

It is a monumental mess and it was all started by one of the most amateurish cheating escapades ever seen in sport. And that escapade should have been laughed at, punished with a heavy fine and ridicule, and everyone could have moved on.

Instead, this sorry saga is far from over.

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