SOUTHAMPTON called the  ‘spygate’ punishment “manifestly disproportionate”.

That is legal language. Football language is simpler. They think they have been absolutely done — and perhaps they have.

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A young interim at Southampton was caught spying on Middlesbrough before the Championship play-off semi-final first leg

Saints were this week kicked out of the play-off final as a result of spygate Credit: GETTY

Because whatever Southampton did — and clearly they did something monumentally stupid — English football has reached the stage where a bloke with a mobile phone hiding near a hedge can apparently trigger a £215million punishment and one of the most extraordinary sanctions this game has seen in decades.

The Saints are out of the Championship play-off final. Gone. Finished.

Not because they fielded an ineligible player, fixed a match, doped athletes or cooked the books. Or bribed a referee.

Because somebody filmed training.

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‘Deplorable’ Southampton ‘pressured intern to spy on rivals’, EFL reveals

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Saints have also been hit with a four-point points deduction for next season Credit: GETTY

Saints boss Tonda Eckert authorised the spying Credit: SHUTTERSTOCK

Yes, it was against the rules. Yes, it was unsporting. Yes, there should be punishment. Nobody sensible disputes that.

But expulsion from the richest match in football? Really?

The more details that emerge, the stranger this becomes. We now learn from the independent commission that a young Southampton intern allegedly felt pressured by senior staff into carrying out the filming missions. One assignment he reportedly refused.

The commission spoke of junior employees being put in impossible positions by those above them.

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JattvibeSport columnist Karren Brady believes the punishment bestowed on Saints is somewhat excessive Credit: AFP

Which raises another question — if this was, as the commission described, a “top-down” operation authorised by boss Tonda Eckert, why are the players and supporters carrying the greatest punishment?

Leo Scienza put it perfectly this week when he said: “We gave everything for this dream. Sacrifice after sacrifice.”

And for what? So an intern with a phone can potentially cost a squad their promotion bonuses, their Premier League futures and perhaps even their Southampton careers.

This is where football loses perspective.

The EFL seems to have concluded that because promotion is worth around £200m, only a punishment of similar magnitude can act as a deterrent.

So, Saints have been expelled from the play-offs, handed a four-point deduction for next season and publicly humiliated.

Yet seven years ago, Leeds were fined £200,000 after Marcelo Bielsa admitted sending somebody to spy on Derby County training. That incident effectively created the anti-spying regulations.

So, football has gone from a £200,000 fine to a £215m sporting catastrophe Quite the inflation rate.

And let us not pretend this was some sophisticated espionage operation by former intelligence officers. This was football’s version of Inspector Clouseau.

The intern was spotted lurking around Middlesbrough’s training complex, bought a coffee nearby, and allegedly tried filming tactical preparations.

What exactly did Southampton think they were discovering? Boro’s keeper might play in goal?

Managers already spend entire seasons studying opponents and by May know every pressing trigger, set-piece routine and back-post weakness.

Football is not Cold War espionage.

And now comes the chaos. Hull City are threatening legal action if they lose the final. Wrexham are furious as they missed the play-offs by two points and believe the entire competition has been compromised.

Fans have booked hotels, trains and tickets. Lawyers countrywide are probably clearing diary space as we speak.

This story is nowhere near finished. Nor should it be.

Because football authorities always insist they want proportionality, consistency and common sense.

Yet every so often, they produce a punishment so enormous, so theatrical, that it feels less like justice and more like an attempt to make an example of somebody.

Southampton deserve punishment. But there is punishment and there is annihilation.

And English football should be very careful about confusing the two.

Tonda Eckert could soon be handed his P45 Credit: SHUTTERSTOCK