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11 hours ago
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Southampton’s manager, Tonda Eckert, is facing a lengthy suspension from all football activity after being charged with three counts of misconduct by the Football Association.
They relate to the Spygate scandal and involve breaching FA rules during covert missions to illicitly observe Championship training sessions involving Middlesbrough, Ipswich and Oxford last season.
The 33-year-old has until Tuesday to respond to the charges and may well fear the precedent set by Fifa when it banned Bev Priestman, the English-born former Canada women’s head coach and assistant England women coach, from football worldwide for 12 months.
In 2024 Priestman, then in charge of Canada, was found to have authorised the use of a drone to monitor New Zealand’s training during the Paris Olympics.
Southampton have already been punished for Spygate by the English Football League when in May an independent disciplinary commission found the Championship club guilty of three counts of football espionage.
That ruling stripped Eckert’s team of their right to appear in the playoff final in addition to ruling that they must start the coming Championship campaign handicapped by a four-point deduction. The EFL, though, has no power to issue sanctions against individuals in such instances, so the case against Eckert was handed to the FA, which launched a long-running inquiry.
At the start of July the governing body spoke to Eckert, a former analyst for the Germany national team, at length and have the power to issue a range of punishments, ranging from a warning to a heavy fine to suspension.
Yet whereas Priestman’s ban was worldwide, the FA only possess the power to prevent Eckert working in England. The governing body does, however, have the right to ask Fifa to apply any suspension internationally.
In 2023, the Italian FA succeeded with such a request when they demanded that the then Newcastle midfielder Sandro Tonali’s 10-month suspension for betting irregularities be applied worldwide. In Eckert’s case, an England-only ban would appear almost meaningless were he to be offered a job abroad.
Eckert has already apologised to Southampton fans and admitted he should have known that EFL regulations specifically outlawed spying. A coach who grew up within a European culture that tacitly tolerates observing rivals’ training sessions also spoke of the “bitter irony” that Southampton’s three spying missions had “no impact” on his team’s planning or performances.
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William Salt, the intern first-team analyst, was caught filming Middlesbrough’s training session on a mobile phone before the first leg of a playoff semi-final won on aggregate by Southampton before their expulsion. He has since been offered a permanent post in the club’s academy. Salt has not been the subject of any FA charges.
Southampton’s owner, Dragan Solak, has vowed to stand by Eckert and has maintained he will not sack him. But a possible 12-month – or, as some sources are suggesting, six-month FA ban – could alter that stance.
In a statement on Wednesday Southampton said: “Tonda and the club will continue to cooperate fully and openly with the FA. Our focus remains on preparations for the 2026-27 season. The club remains fully supportive of Tonda and his staff as we work towards our ambition of returning to the Premier League.”
Eckert, who saw Middlesbrough take Southampton’s place in a playoff final won by Hull, recently told BBC Radio Solent: “I’ve held my hand up for this judgment on something I have authorised. I am responsible and I apologise for bad judgment.”
Back in 2019, the FA issued formal warnings to the then Leeds manager Marcelo Bielsa and a club analyst for spying on Derby, but English football’s regulations have since been tightened.
