After the most dramatic play-off campaign of all, the Championship’s play-offs will be bigger than ever this season. The two developments are actually unconnected, but the most lucrative match in global football took a new turn, and England’s second flight gained more attention across the footballing planet, after a scandal that soon acquired its own name: Spygate.
As the Championship restarts this weekend, it is with a warning that standing behind a tree and filming a training session on an iPhone can come at a cost; potentially of £200m as well as considerable reputational damage. It also means perhaps the most eagerly anticipated game of the season, by those with affiliations to neither club anyway, will be on 27 November: Southampton against Middlesbrough.
