8 hours ago
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Tonda Eckert has apologised for orchestrating the spying scandal that culminated in Southampton being kicked out of the Championship playoff final. Southampton, who observed training sessions of three opponents last season, were denied the chance to win promotion after an independent disciplinary commission found the club “seriously violated” the integrity of the competition.
Eckert, publicly addressing the six charges made by the English Football League for the first time in a video message released by the club, said he accepted “full responsibility”, adding: “I apologise to all of the clubs that have been involved and mostly I apologise to our supporters.” In a similar address the Southampton owner, Dragan Solak, said he wants the German head coach, who is under investigation from the Football Association, to lead the club into the Premier League next season.
Eckert cited his coaching experiences in Germany and Italy and Pep Guardiola’s previous comments as “context” to the spying missions. Eckert ordered analysts to observe Oxford United and Ipswich Town during the regular season, before sending an analyst to Middlesbrough on the eve of their playoff semi-final first leg. In Germany, Eckert worked for Bayern Munich, RB Leipzig and FC Koln, and in Italy he worked at Genoa alongside Southampton’s current sporting director, Johannes Spors.
“When I worked in Italy for over four years, every starting lineup that we have chosen for the games was always out in the media before games, and the reason is our training sessions, especially the ones before games, have always been observed, by media and from opponent teams we came up against,” Eckert said. “Guardiola has spoken about this in his time at Bayern Munich, that it has been common practice in Germany to observe training sessions, knowing that other teams would do the same.”
In April, the panel found, an intern was asked to surveil Ipswich while the team trained for a fixture at Southampton at the ground of nearby Eastleigh. The intern said he was told “the boss is adamant that someone needs to go” but refused to take on the task. An academy analyst was chosen instead and recorded footage of a session. Eckert said the reason for spying on Oxford was because he wanted to establish whether they would shift from a “back five to a back four” in defence and Middlesbrough to ascertain whether Hayden Hackney would feature. “None of what has happened had any affect on the sporting performance,” Eckert said.
Eckert alluded to the need to rebuild bridges with supporters, if he avoids an FA ban. “I am devastated after six months of building that relationship back up, the season has come to an end, an end that couldn’t have left us in a worse place,” he said.
“I don’t want to say this to excuse anything we have done, I just want to give you context to the way that I grew up in the football world. For everything that has happened, I do want to apologise and I hold my hand up because as head coach I am responsible.”
Solak said he wants to “close the chapter and look ahead together as one, including Tonda and his staff”, adding: “Tonda’s period as a head coach has been a success so far. Our form during 2026 has been remarkable and we believe he is the man to take us forward. As a board, we are fully behind him and together we have only one objective: we want promotion back to the Premier League.”
