09/17/26 10:05:00
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09/17 10:04 CDT Spying scandal is still haunting Southampton as Wrexham's
celebrity owners have a dig
Spying scandal is still haunting Southampton as Wrexham's celebrity owners have
a dig
By STEVE DOUGLAS
AP Sports Writer
Another week, another taunt as Southampton continues to be dogged by its
conduct in the "Spygate" soccer scandal.
This time, the jibes are coming from Wrexham's famous co-owners.
Ahead of a match between the teams in England's second-tier Championship on
Saturday, Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mac released a video containing cutting
references to a saga from last season that saw Southampton expelled from the
promotion playoffs for unauthorized filming of opponents' practice sessions.
"Today, for no particular reason, we want to talk about the importance of
privacy," Reynolds says after emerging from behind a tree, "specifically how to
prevent spies from seeing what you're doing."
"Because there's some things," Mac continues, "that you just don't want any
other people to see."
They went on to say this wasn't just a message for Wrexham's fans, but for
those of Oxford, Ipswich, Middlesbrough and people everywhere.
This was a reference --- as part of a promotion for Wrexham's front-of-kit
sponsor, Firefox --- to the three teams that Southampton admitted to spying on
last season.
The tree? Well, that's a nod to a Southampton intern being spotted filming a
Middlesbrough training session from behind a tree --- the incident which
sparked an investigation that revealed Southampton's misbehavior.
That, in turn, led to Southampton getting thrown out of the playoffs ---
costing the team a chance of promotion to the lucrative Premier League --- and
receiving a four-point deduction to start this season. Its manager, Tonda
Eckert, has since been charged by the Football Association with bringing the
game into disrepute, with an arbitration panel saying it was "a contrived and
determined plan from top down to gain a competitive advantage."
Southampton's opponents aren't letting this lie.
Wrexham had a dig during the offseason. Upon discovering it would be playing
Southampton in the last match before a hiatus for international matches,
Wrexham posted details of the match with the caption: "Taking us into the
international break," accompanied by a spy emoji and a calendar reminder to
"Check Training Ground" for unauthorized visitors in the days ahead of the game.
Southampton's first game of the season was at Watford, whose fans baited
Eckert's team. Even Watford's mascot got involved, standing behind one of the
goalposts ahead of the game and poking its head out with a binocular gesture.
On Saturday, Bristol City fans sang a song that referred to Southampton as
cheats in the opening seconds of their Championship game.
Later, Southampton supporters were heard singing: "We spy when we want, we spy
when we want, we are Southampton, we spy when we want."
After losing to Watford in their opener, Southampton has won four games and
drawn the other two to climb to ninth place in the Championship standings,
setting up another run to the playoffs --- or even to the two automatic
promotion spots --- in a bid to return to the Premier League.
Wrexham is 19th in the 24-team standings after just one win in seven games.
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