LONDON (AP) 鈥� Southampton secured an immediate return to the Premier League on Sunday by beating Leeds 1-0 at Wembley Stadium in the Championship playoff final, the richest one-off match in world soccer.
An uplift of 140 million pounds ($180 million) in future earnings from broadcast revenue and prize money is guaranteed for the south-coast club thanks to Adam Armstrong鈥檚 24th-minute winner at England鈥檚 national stadium.
Southampton is heading back up to the lucrative Premier League alongside Leicester and Ipswich, which took the automatic promotion spots in the Championship.
As for Leeds, whose U.S. ownership group contains major-winning golfers Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas, the club鈥檚 playoff woes continued.
This was the sixth time Leeds has failed to go up via the post-season series. Making it even more painful is the fact that Leeds finished third in the regular season 鈥� three points above fourth-place Southampton 鈥� and missed out on automatic promotion after winning only one of its last six games.
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AP soccer:
The Associated Press
