Southampton Manager Speaks Out Following ‘Spygate’ Scandal, Playoff Expulsion

Southampton were expelled from the Championship playoffs as a result of the scandal.

Southampton lost out on the opportunity for Premier League promotion. | Robin Jones/Getty Images

Following the recent spying scandal that has taken over Southampton, manager Tonda Eckert has issued a public apology via social media, taking full responsibility for the club’s wrongdoing and providing context into the specific instances of transgression.

The Saints were expelled from the Championship playoff finals last month, following their admission to multiple breaches of federation regulations, specifically those “requiring Clubs to act with the utmost good faith and prohibiting the observation of another Club’s training session within 72 hours of a scheduled match.”

The scandal, branded “Spygate,” surfaced publicly on May 8 after Southampton were charged for spying on upcoming playoff opponents Middlesbrough. A Southampton junior performance analyst was caught on CCTV at the Middlesbrough training ground and was accused of recording the training session. Separate charges were then filed, Southampton having admitted to additional breaches concerning a December match against Oxford United and an April clash with Ipswich Town.

Southampton’s breach of EFL rules heavily taints the progress and rapid upturn in form the club experienced in the latter half of the season, climbing from 15th in the table to as high as fifth to secure a playoff position. Despite the incident, Southampton owner Dragan Šolak said the club will not fire Eckert nor his staff. The Football Association could still ban Eckert though, preventing his ability to come on the touchline for a club within the English governing body.

In addition to losing out on the opportunity to win roughly $295 million in the Championship promotion playoffs, Southampton will enter the new season on our four-point penalty.

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Eckert Sends Apology to Fans, Reasons Spying

Tonda Eckert took over for Southampton in 2025. | Robbie Jay Barratt - AMA/Getty Images

“Hi Saint supporters,” the manager began, in a video on X. “What I am going to say is not going to be perfect, but I will try to be as honest and as clear I can be... For everything that has happened, I do apologize, and I hold my hand up because as the head coach, I am responsible for everything that has happened in this football club.

“I do apologize to the supporters...for the ones who have managed to bring us to the very end of the season where we were supposed to play the biggest game of the season,” he added about expulsion from the playoffs. “I apologize to the players who have done everything they absolutely can in the last six months to bring this football club back to where it belongs. They would have deserved to play the final.”

The 33-year-old German reasoned his staff’s spying to the differing conditions of other domestic soccer leagues.

“When I worked in Italy for over four years, every starting lineup that we had chosen for games was always out in the media before games, and the reason is that our training sessions, especially the ones before games, have always been observed from media and observed from opponent teams that we came up against,” he said.

“It has become common practice in Germany to observe training sessions knowing that other teams were doing the same. I don’t say this to excuse anything we have done, but to give you context in the way I grew up and the football world. There are different rules from the EFL, and I should have known them.”

Eckert’s claim that he did not know the EFL rules comes amid reports from the League Arbitration Panel that suggests some performance analysts did push back on Eckert when he requested them to observe opponents’ trainings, with the employee watching Middlesbrough even fleeing the scene after being caught, quickly changing clothes in the bathroom and deleting his LinkedIn account in fear of being tracked down online.

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Eckert Details Specific Spying Instances

Fans have been poking fun at Southampton. | Warren Little/Getty Images

Eckert then further confirmed the other two spying allegations, illegally observing Oxford’s practice ahead of their Dec. 26 match, a 2–1 loss, as well as Ipswich Town ahead of their April 28 match, a 2–2 draw.

His decision to spy on Oxford came as a result of interim manager Craig Short coming into the U’s fold. “We decided to send someone to the training session to see if they would switch from a back-five to a back-four,” Eckert said.

As for the Ipswich incident, a match which ended in a 2–2 draw, Eckert stated he knew nothing about it: “When I came into the meeting room two hours before kickoff to prepare my prematch meeting. I was shown the footage for the first time. I asked for it to be stopped, and none of it had an effect on how we played in the game that evening.”

Eckert was aware of the Middlesbrough spying incident last month, though, eager to learn the status of star midfielder Hayden Hackney for the Championship semifinals. “We had made a decision on Monday to send somebody to observe the training session and find out if he would be available for the game or not.”

Southampton won the tie 2–1 on aggregate to advance to the final; however, Eckert was adamant that none of the spying incidents actually led to a different result on the pitch. He claimed that the rapid ascendency of the club in the latter half of the season was exclusively due to the improved performances of Southampton’s players.

“This is the bit of the irony of the cases,” he said. “None of what has happened had an effect on our sporting performance... It has always been the players in every single game that have made the difference.”

Whether or not the FA will allow Eckert to continue coaching remains to be seen.

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