'Put Wrexham in' - Hull owner with legal threat if Boro win play-off
Hull City owner Acun Ilicali is attending the Championship play-off final
- Published3 hours ago
Hull City owner Acun Ilicali has vowed to take legal action if the Tigers do not win Saturday's Championship play-off final against Middlesbrough.
Boro lost to Southampton in the semi-final - but were reinstated after Saints admitted to spying on the Teessiders' training session and were expelled from the competition.
"Our legal team says that we have to go for action, that's for sure," Ilicali told BBC Radio Humberside outside Wembley Stadium before kick-off in the final.
"So we have no doubt about it. Here, all we want is justice. If justice is broken, nobody will enjoy football."
Ilicali described the decision to allow Middlesbrough to re-enter the play-offs as "unbelievable".
He said: "If this action was so big that a team is out of the play-offs, why didn't they let them not play the semi-final, investigate and take Southampton out and put Wrexham in?
"Why is Wrexham out now? Put Wrexham in and continue the competition.
"For me, an eliminated team [being] put back - also our lawyers say this and that's their opinion too - is an incredibly wrong decision."
The 56-year-old, who took over Hull City in 2022, said he did not want to discuss the outcome of the EFL's independent disciplinary commission's hearing before the day of the final to avoid distracting the players.
"Now I can talk a little more because now the boys are in the stadium and they will not hear me. I didn't want to make their focus disturbed," he added.
"Decisions are discussable from what I understand from our lawyers, very discussable.
"But of course we have to focus on the game and the boys are tough enough to overcome these difficulties."
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Southampton expelled from play-offs for spying
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A complex case
Image source, PA MediaHull City are facing Middlesbrough in the Championship play-off final on Saturday at Wembley
Southampton were expelled from the play-offs on Tuesday and their appeal against the decision was rejected the following day - just 72 hours before kick-off in Saturday's showpiece event.
Saints also admitted to spying on two other rivals' training sessions, including Oxford United in December and Ipswich Town last month.
The Football Association has since opened an investigation of its own into Southampton over the Spygate scandal.
The club accepted what happened was "wrong" and apologised to the other clubs involved, as well as Southampton's supporters.
After their appeal was rejected, the club said in a statement: "While we fully acknowledge the seriousness of this matter and the scrutiny that has followed, the club has consistently believed the original sporting sanction was disproportionate, a view that has been widely shared by many in the football community."
But Middlesbrough boss Kim Hellberg said his trust in "doing the right thing" was restored after Saints' expulsion.
"It's a feeling of relief, happiness, a little bit of trust in doing the right thing and humanity," he told BBC Radio Tees.
"The right way to do it is working hard, not doing something else when everyone will see with the evidence and everything we know.
"It is quite clear what has been done and that should never be allowed in football."
Hull boss Sergej Jakirovic previously said the Tigers were "collateral damage" because they had to wait to find out which opponent they would actually be facing in the final.
"We can say everything is unfair in this last two weeks. You don't know what's going on," he told BBC Radio Humberside.
"If you look from a Middlesbrough point of view they knew if they were successful they would play against us so I can turn the situation around but I will not do that. We will try to beat them on the pitch."
Precedent shows Boro should advance to the final - analysis
ByDale JohnsonFootball issues correspondentYou can understand why Ilicali feels his Hull team and their fans have been hard done by.
It should have been a triumphant build-up to the play-off final, but it ended up being a week of distraction as Spygate took up the headlines.
The Tigers had a week preparing to play Southampton, then they had to rip up those plans and pivot to Middlesbrough.
By the time the appeal was heard on Wednesday night, and Hull were sure they would play Boro, they had just two days' training left.
Ilicali's legal team may believe they have a case that Hull should not have to play the final, that they should be automatically promoted. After all, Boro had been eliminated.
Yet this is not how sporting sanctions work in English football, and there seems little chance of a legal challenge being successful.
The precedent is that if a team breaks a regulation in a knockout competition - which the play-offs are - their opponents go through to the next round.
Take the EFL Trophy this season.
In January, Luton Town lost 2-1 at home to Swindon Town in the round of 16.
Swindon were then drawn to play Plymouth in the quarter-finals - but it was discovered that the Robins had fielded two ineligible players against Luton.
Swindon were expelled and Luton reinstated.
The independent disciplinary commission did not put Plymouth directly through to the semi-finals, or go back to the last 32 to find new opponents for Luton in the last 16.
Just as with Boro in the play-offs, Luton progressed to the next round.
Luton, after at one stage being knocked out, would go on to beat Stockport in the final at Wembley and lift the trophy.
What about Ilicali's claim that Wrexham should have been reinstated? That has little ground either.
Even if you applied Southampton's four-point penalty to this season's league table, they would still be in the play-offs against Middlesbrough. Wrexham would still be seventh.
Plus, the league season and the play-offs are considered separate tournaments, which is why the independent disciplinary commission felt it was necessary to apply two punishments - the points deduction and expulsion.
How about Ilicali's claim that the Southampton v Middlesbrough games should not have taken place?
The issue here, of course, is due process - taking action to stop the game happening would imply guilt on the part of Southampton.
The EFL opened an investigation on 7 May, the same day it was told about the spying on Boro. It charged them the next day and then, as per EFL regulations, the process was handed over to an independent body.
Hull may feel aggrieved but there is nothing in the decision of the independent disciplinary commission which has deviated from the usual judgements in English football.
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