Credit: Sky Sports
Sun 10 May 2026 9:40, UK
Luke Ayling decided to “plead the fifth” when asked about his experience of Leeds United‘s 2019 spygate incident.
The 34-year-old was part of Marcelo Bielsa‘s Leeds squad during the 2018-19 season, during which the original spygate drama began.
Bielsa admitted to sending a spy to watch Derby County’s training session in the lead up to a match between the two sides in January 2019.
He also confessed to commissioning a member of staff to watch every team Leeds played that season train, and were subsequently fined £200,000 by the EFL after breaching “good faith” rules.
Ayling and Leeds lost to Derby in the play-off semi-finals that same season, and seven years later, the former Whites star has been caught up in another spygate scandal, this time with Middlesbrough.
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What Luke Ayling said when asked about Leeds spygate incident
Southampton are embroiled in spygate 2.0, after one of their members of staff was alleged to have been caught filming Middlesbrough’s training session on Thursday, 48 hours before the two sides met in the play-off semi-final first leg.
Boro allege the supposed Saints spy to be a first-team analyst, and was confronted after being spotted allegedly filming their training session on his mobile phone whilst wearing earphones.
Southampton have now been charged by the EFL relating to regulation 3.4, which requires Clubs to act towards each other in good faith.
They’ve also been charged over regulation 127, which prohibits Clubs from observing, or attempting to observe, another’s training session within 72 hours of a scheduled game between the two clubs.
The incident has stolen the headlines in the EFL over the past few days, and now Middlesbrough defender Ayling has seen both sides of the spygate coin.
Speaking in a post-match interview with Sky Sports after Boro’s semi-final first leg with Saints, Ayling was asked about his experience of being on both sides of a spygate incident, but the ex-Leeds defender didn’t want to give much away about it.
“Plead the fifth. I don’t know nothing about that first time,” Ayling joked.
“The players don’t know nothing about that. That’s a coaching staff thing. That’s got nothing to do with the players.”
Why Southampton spygate is more serious than Leeds’
At the time of Leeds’ original spygate drama in 2019, the EFL had no set rule that explicitly prohibited Clubs from observing another team’s training session before a game.
As such, the Whites were given a relative slap on the wrist with their £200,000 fine, but it was a watershed moment, as it prompted the EFL to bring in hard rules to hopefully prevent another similar incident in the future.
So, now that we’re here again with Southampton allegedly sending an analyst to observe Middlesbrough’s session 48 hours before their match, this incident is considerably more serious.
Middlesbrough head coach Kim Hellberg used the term “cheat” when asked about a member of Southampton’s staff being caught at Boro’s training ground on Thursday morning, just 48 hours before the Championship play-off semi-final between the two clubs.
Southampton were charged on… pic.twitter.com/yfafAgLUdO
— The Athletic | Football (@TheAthleticFC) May 9, 2026
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Premier League promotion is worth a minimum of £200m of income to football clubs, and so with this spying incident allegedly taking place ahead of the play-offs as opposed to a regular season game makes it additionally serious too.
Many Boro fans and even some pundits are calling for Southampton to be thrown out of the play-offs if found guilty, as Middlesbrough will surely feel that a fine wouldn’t wash for them.
If found guilty, Boro will rightly feel that their preparation and chances of winning the play-offs have been damaged, and thus, would have every right to feel as though they need to be personally compensated in some form.