Southampton boss Tonda Eckert apologises over ‘Spygate’ after receiving owner’s backing

Southampton head coach Tonda Eckert has apologised for orchestrating the ‘Spygate’ scandal and admitted he is responsible for “everything that has happened”.

Saints were thrown out of the Championship play-offs last month after admitting sending a young intern to spy on a Middlesbrough training session.

The EFL said the south-coast club were found guilty of a “deplorable” act of putting pressure on the junior member of staff to spy on Boro.

In a damning verdict, the governing body said Southampton boss Eckert authorised the spying.

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Responsible

The German has now put out a lengthy video statement on club media, which began: “I will try to be as honest and clear as I can be.

“For everything that has happened, I do want to apologise and I hold my hand up because as head coach I am responsible.

“I am responsible for everything that has happened at this football club.”

As well as play-off semi-final opponents Boro, Saints were also found guilty of spying on Ipswich Town and Oxford United during the regular season.

“I apologise to all of the clubs that have been involved and mostly I apologise to our supporters,” added Eckert, who explained that spying on teams is commonplace in other countries.

Context

“When I worked in Italy for over four years, every starting line-up that we have chosen for the games was always out in the media before games.

“The reason is that our training sessions, especially the ones before games, have always been observed from the media and have always been observed by opponent teams that we came up against.

“(Pep) 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.

“I don’t want to say this to excuse anything that we have done. I just want to give you context in the way that I grew up in the football world.”

Backing

The League Arbitration Panel’s written reasons for rejecting Southampton’s appeal against their expulsion were published on Monday.

In one WhatsApp exchange, an analyst messaged an intern saying: “You legend. Manager loved it.”

Eckert was widely expected to lose his job after Saints were expelled from the play-offs and replaced by Boro, who they beat over two legs, in the Wembley final.

It cost the club a shot at promotion to the Premier League and the near £200million windfall that brings.

But, shortly before Eckert’s statement was released, club owner Dragan Solak put out his own backing the 33-year-old.

The Serbian media mogul said: “Tonda’s period as our 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.”.

Mistake

Eckert added: “I am a young coach, I have made a mistake and I take full responsibility.

“I want to thank Dragan and the board for the support especially in times like this.

“With everything that I have said, without (a) script and without (a) predefined statement, speaking to you from the heart, I hope that you have an overview of what has happened over the last weeks and I hope that time you can understand and forgive, and I hope to see you all soon.”

Saints were also deducted four points ahead of next season, while the Football Association has opened its own investigation into the matter.

READ MORE: FA investigates Southampton over ‘Spygate’ scandal after expulsion from play-off final