Middlesbrough will play Hull in the Championship play-off final after Southampton lost their appeal against their expulsion for 'Spygate'.
Wednesday's ruling has confirmed that Socceroos Riley McGree and Sammy Silvera will now both have a chance to play in world soccer's most lucrative club match with a crack at reaching the Premier League.
An independent commission imposed the original penalty on Southampton on Tuesday – and docked the Hampshire club four points for next season – after Saints admitted three spying charges, including observing a Boro session ahead of the semi-final first leg.
The commission also reinstated Middlesbrough, who lost 2-1 away after extra-time, having drawn 0-0 at home, denying Southampton the chance of a shot at promotion to the Premier League worth an estimated Stg 200million ($A376 million) at least.
Saints chief executive Phil Parsons called it "manifestly disproportionate" to any other sanction handed down in the history of the English game, but the south coast club's appeal on Wednesday was rejected.
Middlesbrough, with Australian international midfielder McGree and winger Silvera in their ranks, will now face Hull City for a place in the Premier League at Wembley on Saturday.
"On the appeal itself: we accept that there should be a sanction. What we cannot accept is a sanction which bears no proportion to the offence," Parsons had said earlier.
In 2019, Leeds were fined Stg 200,000 and reprimanded for spying on Derby County. The Leeds boss at that time, Marcelo Bielsa, admitted his staff had watched all the club's opponents in training that season.
Parsons listed examples of other sanctions such as Luton's 30-point deduction in 2008-09 for a club in League Two (fourth-tier) but with "no comparable revenue at stake" as well as Derby's 21-point deduction in 2021 that cost them their Championship status.
"The Commission was entitled to impose a sanction. It was not, we will argue, entitled to impose one that is manifestly disproportionate to every previous sanction in the history of the English game," said Parsons.
Former England internationals Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer shared surprised at the severity of the punishment on The Rest is Football podcast.
Lineker said: "I'm not sure the crime warrants this punishment. I mean, it's got like a little guy with an iPhone filming. It's gone on forever that sort of thing and I don't really know what anyone gets out of it.
"It is breaking the rules, we know that. But I don't know. A giant fine would have probably sufficed."
Former Southampton striker Shearer said ahead of the appeal: "I'm with you in terms of the crime and the punishment."
