Southampton has been thrown out of Saturday¡¯s Championship playoff final ¡ª the richest game in world soccer ¡ª 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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