Southampton have been blasted for an ’embarrassing’ lack of class after their manager Tonda Eckert escaped a ban for last season’s Spygate scandal.
The Championship club – who sit 13th at the moment – made jokes and picked fights with Middlesbrough fans on social media after the verdict.
Eckert is free to continue managing Saints despite Daily Mail Sport’s revelation last season that they had spied on Middlesbrough before their play-off semi-final clash. The South Coast club were thrown out of the play-off final as a result.
Their manager has been handed a six-week ban, but it is suspended until the end of next season, meaning he would have to reoffend to serve any of it. He has also been fined £28,000.
Southampton’s response on social media has been childish. They posted a video of Eckert, 33, doing fist pumps to the stands with the caption: ‘Just don’t think you understand’.
They also taunted Middlesbrough supporters who had replied, posting a clip of Will McKenzie from The Inbetweeners and asking: ‘You still got notifications on?’
Southampton posted a video of Tonda Eckert celebrating after he escaped a ban (X: SouthamptonFC)
Their view is that they have been punished enough. For spying breaches against Boro, Oxford United, and Ipswich Town in 2025 and 2026, they were booted out of the play-offs, costing them a place in the Premier League worth a potential £200m. Boro went on to lose the play-off final in their place to Hull City, who were promoted.
They were also deducted four points coming into this season.
‘Southampton Football Club welcomes the outcome of the FA hearing into the events at the end of last season,’ a statement read.
‘We hope this now brings a conclusion to a regrettable period of our history and measures have been put in place to ensure that such errors in judgement never happen again at our club.
‘We want to take this opportunity to thank the supporters for their unconditional backing throughout this process. Our fan base is unmatched, and we are excited to move forward together towards a bright future.’
The FA said that Eckert was the only witness their panel, which included two KCs, heard from and added that he was ‘exceptionally impressive’.
Explaining the Oxford incident, Eckert said that their opponents had sacked Gary Rowett as head coach and appointed Craig Short as interim and that he wanted to see if they were going to play with a back four or a back five so sent someone to watch them train.
In the Ipswich incident, he agreed to receive CCTV footage of them training at National League Eastleigh, ahead of their fixture with his Saints.
Eckert’s Spygate scandal last season saw Southampton thrown out of the play-offs
With regards to Boro, Eckert told the panel that in a preparation meeting he asked whether it would be possible to find out if Hayden Hackney had resumed training.
‘One of the assistants informed me that Middlesborough FC’s [sic] training ground is located on a golf course which is accessible to the public,’ he added.
‘I said that we should send someone there to see if Hayden Hackney was training. Nobody expressed any reservations or objections to this proposal.
‘The exchange took a matter of minutes and then we continued with the meeting. To confirm I did not ask for any videos to be taken of Middlesborough FC’s [sic] training sessions and I did not identify any particular individual to travel to Middlesborough [sic] to identify if Hayden Hackney was training. I do, however, accept that I was wrong to ask for any kind of observations.’
An intern was sent to the venue, who was subsequently spotted by Boro – who complained to the EFL – but not before Eckert had been ‘provided a breakdown of the videos… including the predicted line up.
‘I had already finished preparing for the match,’ he said, ‘but I watched the videos’.
The panel praised Eckert, 33, for his ‘genuine contrition’. He had argued that during his time in Germany and Italy, spying on training sessions of opponents was ‘commonplace’, that he was unaware it was against the rules in England and said that allegations he had bullied younger members of staff into spying were ‘extremely upsetting’, adding that he would have never have forced anyone to do anything to which they had a moral objection, let alone a breach of the rules.
The panel found there was no ‘systemic or organised course of action’ with regards to spying, and found ‘considerable mitigation’ with regards to Eckert who had shown ‘deep and meaningful’ remorse and ‘learned lessons’.
Southampton owner Dragan Solak added: ‘I’m pleased that the independent panel has come to a decision and that we have an outcome. We have already suffered enough, and we appreciate the panel’s recognition of that.
‘We are confident the manager has learned from this matter, and a suspended sentence allows him to continue in his role. I firmly believe that Tonda is one of Europe’s most exciting young coaches, and with this distraction removed, I am confident he can lead the team to a successful season.
‘I’d like to thank our fans for standing by us and showing the team so much support during a time when we have needed them more than ever.
‘The FA process has been a positive experience. Tonda has been given the opportunity to be open and honest with the panel, and the panel has been able to see that he is simply a good person who made poor decisions.
‘The same cannot be said for the EFL process, and the way they have subsequently treated us is not something we will forget. However, now is the time to look forward to what I believe will be a great future for our club.’
Before the verdict, Southampton had already lined up former Wolves and Middlesbrough boss Rob Edwards to potentially step in if Eckert’s ban was lengthy.
Eckert had pleaded for sympathetic handling, telling the BBC this week that the club have already had a ‘big, big punishment’ while Saints chief executive Phil Parsons said: ‘What we hope as a club is they (the FA panel) actually recognise where we are at the moment, and what we’ve already been through, because I think it has to be taken into account.
‘I really feel like we’ve taken enough. We’ve been hurt. I think it’s one of the largest sanctions ever when it comes to football, or even sporting, history.’
