Jakirovic suggests 'spygate' may not yet be over
Hull City boss Sergej Jakirovic admitted he thought it was funny when he first heard about Southampton spying on opponents ahead of the EFL Championship play-offs, after guiding the Tigers to promotion in the play-off final against Middlesbrough.
Middlesbrough was a victim of Southampton's antics and was reinstated to the play-off final at Wembley last week after the Saints were removed by the EFL for spying, but Boro couldn't take advantage of its second chance, losing 1-0 to a stoppage-time strike from Hull striker Oli McBurnie.
After the match, Jakirovic said he thought the spying drama may still not be over.
"To send a guy to spy on a team, I don't understand this," he said. "I started to laugh, because in my country [Bosnia and Herzegovina] it would be, "Ha ha ha, nothing will happen'.
"But here, I see that it's [very] serious."
Jakirovic said he and his Hull players didn't speak at all about the drama unfolding with Southampton before the match, choosing instead to focus on winning the match regardless of who the opponent was going to be, but he suggested the issue of "spygate" may still not be over.
"It's a very big noise, you can see that," he continued. "I think this [spygate] is not finished yet. We will see. The most important thing is we won today."
Hull City owner Acun Ilicali had threatened legal action ahead of the play-off final if the Tigers were to lose to Boro, a scenario his players ensured wouldn't materialise.
Ilicali questioned why Southampton's place in the play-offs entirely was allowed, and that Wrexham, which finished just outside the play-off places in seventh position, wasn't allowed to join the knockout post-season and fight for a place in the Premier League.
"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?" Ilicali said prior to Hull played Boro.
"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."
Ilicali's threat might be something Wrexham would consider, but there has been no suggestion of that from the team owned by Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McEllheney.
For now, Hull is the side promoted to the Premier League, which will see its last relegated team revealed after Monday's (AEST) final fixtures, with Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United both facing the possibility of switching places with the Tigers.
