Hull City secured promotion to the Premier League with a 1–0 victory over Middlesbrough in the Championship play-off final, Oli McBurnie’s stoppage-time winner providing a decisive end to a highly divisive post-season.

The route to Wembley was overshadowed by an espionage row. Southampton analyst intern William Salt was found filming Middlesbrough’s training from behind a pine tree and was detained by indignant Boro staff. Southampton revealed this was not the first instance of spying sanctioned by manager Tonda Eckert. Saints had prevailed across the two legs of the play-off semifinal against Middlesbrough, only for an unprecedented English Football League ruling to expel Southampton from the final and reinstate Boro.

“We can say everything is unfair in this last two weeks,” Hull manager Sergej Jakirović sighed on the eve of the final.

The final itself was a tight, attritional contest. Only one Championship play-off final in the past decade has been decided by more than a single goal, Brentford’s 2–0 win over Swansea City in 2021, which was aided by Jay Fulton’s red card in the 65th minute. Middlesbrough supporters had gathered in Trafalgar Square the day before, but the match struggled for fluency. The first shot on target did not arrive until the 61st minute and stifling heat contributed to a subdued tempo.

When the breakthrough came it arrived in dramatic fashion. In the 95th minute McBurnie reacted quickest to a poor save from Solomon Brynn, gobbling up the rebound from a cross to find the goal that would send Hull back to the top flight for the first time since 2017. The late strike closed a tumultuous play-off campaign and spared Hull any need for legal action.

After 10 months, 370 Championship matches and 1,021 goals, attention now turns to the Premier League. The final table remains undecided, with Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United the last two sides still fighting to secure top-flight survival with 90 minutes of the season remaining.

Wrexham head into the summer needing targeted reinforcements if they are to convert last season’s high finish into a credible promotion bid. The squad built solid foundations, but gaps remain in key positions and the club must be pragmatic in the transfer market.

Primary among priorities is a striker capable of consistent Championship returns. Kieffer Moore began the campaign strongly and finished with 11 goals, though only one came in 2026 and he started just two of the final 11 league matches. Sam Smith scored seven times in 20 appearances, but only three goals arrived after January. Both remain useful options for Phil Parkinson, yet Wrexham would benefit from adding a leading goalscorer.

The right wing-back role requires attention after Issa Kaboré’s season-long loan ended with no option to buy. Kaboré made 30 appearances, scored 0 goals and supplied 8 assists. He created 0.99 chances per 90 and completed 83.1 percent of his passes, with 1.15 successful crosses and 1.51 successful dribbles per 90. The club pursued alternatives in January and are expected to revisit targets: Terry Devlin, Festy Ebosele and Kosta Nedeljković were all linked, and a summer approach for Idrissa Toure was discussed.

Left wing-back remains under review. Liberato Cacace arrived with high hopes but managed only 13 appearances in an injury-hit debut season; he said the “relentless” nature of Championship football had taken its toll. George Thomason adapted from central midfield and locked down the left flank in Cacace’s absence.

Midfield cover is a clear need. When Ben Sheaf and Matty James started together, Wrexham had 10 matches with a 60 percent win rate, a 20 percent clean sheet rate and 2.1 points per game. Without both, across 36 starts the win rate fell to 36.11 percent, clean sheets rose to 30.55 percent but points per game dropped to 1.38. Both players will remain important, but a younger holding midfielder is necessary.

There is also debate over the goalkeeper spot. Danny Ward began and ended the season as No. 1 while Arthur Okonkwo won broad support after an impressive campaign. The club conceded 65 goals, their worst defensive record since relegation from the Football League in 2008, underlining the need for reinforcements across the spine of the team.

The Championship enters its decisive phase amid an investigation that has overshadowed the closing weeks of the season. On May 8 the Football League charged Southampton after a man, alleged to be a Southampton performance analyst, was recorded on CCTV at Middlesbrough’s training ground and accused of filming sessions and gathering tactical information.

When confronted, the man denied the accusations, appeared to delete something off his phone, ran into a nearby bathroom to change clothes and quickly fled the scene. In the days after the incident The Guardian reported that Middlesbrough had been contacted by other Championship clubs concerned about how consistently prepared Southampton had looked in meetings between the sides.

Attention has focused on Southampton’s dramatic upturn in form during 2026. Fifteenth in the table on Jan. 17, Tonda Eckert’s side put together a 19-game unbeaten run, rising as high as fifth and securing a place in the playoffs alongside Millwall, Middlesbrough and Hull City. Wrexham finished two points outside the playoff places in seventh.

The EFL investigation continued while the playoffs went ahead. Middlesbrough hosted Southampton in the first leg of their semifinal on May 9 and the tie was scoreless. Three days later Southampton won 2–1 at St Mary’s to advance to the playoff final, where they will face Hull City at Wembley on Saturday, May 23.

Middlesbrough manager Kim Hellberg has accused Southampton of “cheating” and appealed for wider support in the second tier. He spoke carefully because of the investigation but was emotional after his side’s elimination. “If we didn’t catch that man who they sent up, five hours to drive, you would sit here and say, ‘well done’ maybe in the tactical aspects of the game and I would go home and feel like I have failed in that aspect that I had to help my players,” Hellberg said.

“But when that is taken away from you, when someone decides: ‘Nah, we’re not going to watch every game, we’ll send someone instead, we’ll film the session, and see everything, and hope they don’t get caught’—I guess that’s why they were switching clothes and all those things—it breaks my heart, in terms of all those things I believe in. I don’t care if there are different rules in other countries.

“If we didn’t catch the person, I’d be sitting here thinking I should’ve done better things. We spend all that time away from family, all of our coaches trying to get a fair way to win a game of that magnitude, and then people are talking [about a] fine for breaking that one that means you go again and take those people with more money. I think it’s absolutely terrible, and again it has nothing to do with the players of Southampton, they deserve all the credit for what they’ve done, it has nothing do with their supporters. We will see what will happen.”

The EFL could apply a sporting sanction if guilt is established. At this late stage such a punishment would likely relate directly to the playoff tie, with proposals including an automatic 3–0 defeat for the first leg, which would hand Middlesbrough the tie. Any ruling would be open to appeal. The case recalls the 2019 Leeds United incident, when Leeds were fined £200,000 after filming Derby County’s training session on Jan. 10, 2019 and a 72-hour rule was introduced; the Paris Olympics in 2024 also featured a spying controversy.