Southampton star Leo Sceinza has described his club's exclusion from the Championship play-offs for spying offences as "heartbreaking", adding that fans "definitely deserved better".
The Saints admitted to three spying charges, including observing a Middlesbrough training session ahead of their play-off semi-finals.
The south coast club will be docked four points from next season, on top of the expulsion from the play-offs.
Saints player of the year Scienza posted on Instagram: "Disappointment, anger, sadness… It's difficult to find the right words for what we're all feeling right now.
"What has happened over the last days is heartbreaking... for the club, for every player in this dressing room, and above all for our supporters.
"A moment like this should never end the way it did."
The Brazilian continued: "I feel sorry for every football fan, as well as the players and supporters of Hull and Boro, who were caught up in all of this chaos too.
"We gave everything for this dream. Day after day, sacrifice after sacrifice, always believing we could bring this club back to where it belongs.
Leo Scienza described the expulsion as 'heartbreaking'
|PA
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"For me, the dream of playing in the Premier League was something I fought for with everything I had. That's why this pain cuts so deep.
"The hardest part is knowing how much our fans deserved this moment.
"You stood behind us all season with incredible passion, loyalty and belief. Even in the toughest moments, you carried us forward.
"Thank you for staying with us through everything, you definitely deserved better."
The Brazilian said the fans 'deserved better'
|PA
The Saints' chief executive, Phil Parsons, described the punishment as "manifestly disproportionate" to any other sanction handed down in the history of the English game.
"What happened was wrong. The club has admitted breaches of EFL Regulations 3.4 and 127," Parsons wrote in an open letter.
"We are sorry to the other clubs involved, and most of all to the Southampton supporters whose extraordinary loyalty and support this season deserved better from the club."
The CEO argued the penalty was grossly disproportionate, noting that Leeds United received a £200,000 fine for a comparable offence.
The EFL booted the Saints out of the play-offs and deducted four points from them for next season's Championship
| GETTYSouthampton, by contrast, have been denied participation in a match Parsons valued at more than £200million, which he described as "by a very considerable distance, the largest penalty ever imposed on an English football club".
The club saw their appeal against their removal from the Championship Play-off final rejected by the EFL, confirming the independent disciplinary commission's original ruling will stand.
The scandal erupted when a club intern was discovered recording a Middlesbrough training session ahead of the play-off semi-final clash.
The EFL confirmed that Saturday's final at Wembley will now kick off at 3.30pm with Boro in the fixture, rather than the originally scheduled 4.30pm start time.
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