100% success rate
©IMAGO
Hull City won promotion to the Premier League in the most dramatic circumstances after beating Middlesbrough 1-0 in the EFL Championship Play-off Final on Saturday. The Tigers were on the backfoot for most of the game until Oli McBurnie struck in the 95th minute to clinch their top-flight status for the first time since their relegation in 2016/17.
Incredibly, Hull were ranked 22nd out of 24 for transfer expenditure in the 2025/26 season, with only Leicester City and Sheffield Wednesday (€0) registering a lower amount than their overall €700,000 spend. That figure is dwarfed by Coventry City and Ipswich Town, the other two teams who achieved automatic promotion this season, with €13.85m and €62.25m respectively. Hull spent months under a transfer embargo, limiting their ability to strengthen the squad.
As the graphic above shows, it also means that Hull have become the only team in the history of the Championship Play-offs to win all three of their appearances in the final. Derby had previously won twice from their three appearances, but Hull can now boast the only 100 per cent record with as many appearances since the format changed in 2004.
Sergej Jakirović only took over as head coach in July 2025, but the Bosnian has guided Hull to the Premier League in his first season in England with a 1.59 points-per-game record. He becomes the first manager from his nation to coach a team in the top flight after getting the better of his counterpart Kim Hellberg.
Spygate scandal overshadows final
As much as the fans had eagerly awaited the drama to unfold on the pitch, the ramifications of the ‘Spygate’ scandal shrouded the game in controversy. Hull owner Acun Ilicali, who purchased the club for €35 million in January 2022, had threatened to launch legal action over the highly controversial saga that saw Southampton thrown out of the play-offs and Middlesbrough reinstated in their place.
It came after the Saints were charged by the English Football League (EFL) for watching training sessions involving Oxford United and Ipswich Town, in addition to filming Middlesbrough as they prepared for the first leg of their play-off semi-final. Hull felt they should’ve been automatically promoted, rather than play a different team with only days to prepare.
“Our legal team says that we have to go for action, that’s for sure,” Ilicali told BBC Radio Humberside. “So we have no doubt about it. Here, all we want is justice. If justice is broken, nobody will enjoy football. 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? 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.”
For Middlesbrough, they can have no complaints after twice failing to take advantage of their place in the play-offs, while Southampton’s role in the saga is likely to have long-lasting repercussions for head coach Tonda Eckert and his staff. For Hull, there will be some relief that it didn’t come to legal action as they can look forward to a summer preparing for Premier League football again.
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