A Southampton fan from Australia who flew all the way to the UK to watch his team in the play-off final has been left furious after discovering they have been kicked out of today’s match.
Ian Mcauley, 71, has been following the team since he was just seven years old and finally took the 22-hour trip to London to watch his beloved side compete at Wembley this afternoon.
But while he was mid-flight this week, the spygate scandal broke and he found out only upon landing that the Saints had been relegated from the match.
Mr Mcauley spent £3,449 on two flights from Perth to attend the game with his cousin, booking the tickets after his side’s semi-final victory against Middlesbrough.
He had been ‘ecstatic’ after the victory and excited at the prospect of finally making it to Wembley, having left the UK for Australia with his family more than 50 years ago in 1970.
Mr Mcauley told how he left Perth on Wednesday evening, before the final decision had been taken, and upon landing from the first leg of his journey in Dubai he received messages from dozens of people telling him the game was off.
Tonda Eckert’s side were thrown out of the play-offs just days before the final, after the Daily Mail revealed that the Saints had sent a junior analyst intern to watch Middlesbrough’s training 48 hours before their meeting in the semi-final first leg.
Southampton admitted to having spied on their opponents – and two other teams – but appealed against the punishment imposed, which puts promotion to the Premier League out of reach for another year.
Ian Mcauley (left), 71, has been following the team since he was just seven years old and finally took the 22-hour trip to London to watch his beloved side compete at Wembley this afternoon
Tonda Eckert’s side were thrown out of the play-offs just days before the final, after the Daily Mail revealed that the Saints had sent a junior analyst intern to watch Middlesbrough’s training 48 hours before their meeting in the semi-final first leg
Southampton will also be docked four points next season.
But on Wednesday their appeal was denied, and with the time zone difference, it meant Mr Mcauley was still in the air when the decision was made.
Middlesbrough is instead taking Southampton’s place in today’s match against Hull City, which kicks off at 3.30pm.
‘I’m not a very emotional person but it’s tough stuff because the players, the supporters have done nothing,’ Mr Mcauley told the BBC.
‘To me, it looked like a witch hunt – there seemed to be a lot of people coming to the fore saying things to try and get us kicked out, for whatever reason.
‘That was a bit of a shock, because Southampton has always been known, in my lifetime, as a club that does things right, … and it’s a club I’ve been extremely proud to be associated with for all my time.’
Fans arrive at Wembley ahead of the play-off final between Hull City and Middlesbrough on Saturday
He added that ticket sales should have been stopped while the investigation was ongoing until a verdict had been reached on the club’s place in the match.
Mr Mcauley recalls how his father was the first person to get him into football, and that despite leaving the UK at just seven years old, he kept up with his beloved team through his uncle, newspapers and now social media.
His uncle, Ron Reynolds, was a goalkeeper who signed from Tottenham Hotspur to Southampton in the 1960s.
He still remembers the excitement of attending his first game, describing how he was ‘hooked’ on the sport for good from that moment.
Southampton has described its punishment as an ‘extremely disappointing outcome’ but said it was ‘clear that trust now needs to be rebuilt’.
