LONDON — Southampton booked an immediate return to the Premier League on Sunday by beating Leeds 1-0 in the Championship playoff final, football's richest single-match tie, at Wembley Stadium.
Adam Armstrong's 24th-minute winner at England's National Stadium guaranteed the south coast club an extra 140 million pounds ($180 million) in future revenue from broadcasting and prize money.
Southampton will return to the lucrative Premier League, joining Leicester and Ipswich as they secured the Championship's automatic promotion spots.
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Meanwhile, Leeds, whose American ownership group includes major-winning golfers Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas, has seen the club struggle in the playoffs.
It was the sixth time Leeds have missed out on promotion in a post-season series. What's even more damaging is the fact that they finished the regular season in third place (three points above fourth-placed Southampton) and missed out on automatic promotion after winning just one of their last six games.
Armstrong reacted to a through pass through the Leeds defence and fired a low shot into the far corner for Southampton's 24th league goal of the season, after the Reds played deep and relied on counter-attacks throughout the game.
Leeds had no answers and could barely threaten Southampton's five-man defence, resulting in a mundane end to the season for one of England's most famous clubs, who, like Southampton, were relegated from the Premier League at the end of the 2022-23 season.
The closest Leeds came to scoring was in the 84th minute when substitute Dan James' shot hit the crossbar and dropped.
Southampton have now won three games against Leeds this season, at home, away and at Wembley.
Southampton is owned by British Chancellor Rishi Sunak's team, Sport Republic, an investment firm in the sports and entertainment industries run by Dragan Solak, the founder of Eastern European telecommunications giant United Group. Solak was at Wembley, but it was not immediately clear whether Sunak was there.
Southampton will be in the Premier League from 2012 to 2023, a period known for producing a number of talented academy players, following in the footsteps of the likes of Gareth Bale and Theo Walcott.
