Tonda Eckert, Southampton’s head coach, is still at risk of getting into trouble over the Spygate controversy, with the FA’s enquiry still underway after five weeks.

Although it has been about a month since the completion of the 2025-26 season, the Saints are still unsure whether head coach Eckert will be retained for the next season.

Eckert is still being investigated by the FA for his role in the Spygate scandal, which rocked the Championship at the end of 2025-26. Evidence suggests that Eckert and other senior members of the club’s backroom staff orchestrated the spying on opposing teams’ training sessions.

However, with dates for the new season due to be revealed and the new season only a few weeks away, it is unknown whether Eckert will manage Southampton as they seek a return to the Premier League.

At the beginning of June, he received the support of chairman Dragon Solak, who has previously stated his intention to keep Eckert, though his hand may be forced if the FA ultimately decides on a lengthy ban for the head coach.

The FA investigation into Tonda Eckert is still ongoing, with no end date in sight.

It’s been five weeks since the FA said that it will be examining what was going on at St Mary’s during the 2025-26 season, and the Northern Echo has now reported on the current problem.

They claim that “The EFL can only take action against its member clubs, but the FA will have looked at who participated, encouraged, and, ultimately, was responsible for the spying missions,” adding that this “could lead to charges and potential bans.”

However, they also claim that the enquiry is still ongoing, with no indication of when it will be concluded.

If the FA determines that rules have been plainly broken, they may impose a variety of punishments, including fines or a ban from the game.

Eckert has already stated that he accepts “full responsibility” for what occurred, so the big question for the FA is how seriously they take the EFL’s charges, whether Eckert – and possibly others – should be sanctioned, and, if so, how severe any punishment should be.

What Southampton supporters are saying about Tonda Eckert

Over the previous few weeks, Southampton fans have had varying opinions on what will happen next with Tonda Eckert.

One fan believes the Saints leadership should devise a cunning strategy to avoid a potential punishment for the German.

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And with existing players evidently thanking him for their permanent signings at the club, Eckert may be forgiven for authorising the surveillance operations.

Tonda Eckert has previously received an FA ban from football.

Southampton’s desire to maintain Tonda Eckert is totally understandable. After losing 2-1 to Hull City in the middle of January, his squad didn’t lose a single Championship match for the rest of the season, and in the FA Cup, they overcame Premier League winners Arsenal and gave Manchester City a fright in their semi-final before losing 2-1.

The decision on whether to charge Eckert will be largely open and shut. Eckert has already accepted “full responsibility” for what occurred.

The question will be whether they believe the rule-breaking was severe enough to warrant further discipline against the individual concerned, and if so, what punishment should be imposed.

The precedence here is mixed. When Leeds United found themselves in a similar situation during the 2018-19 season, head coach Marcelo Bielsa was not personally sanctioned, despite the fact that the rules were different than they are now, and the club was fined £200,000.

When personnel from Canada’s women’s team were found guilty of spying on New Zealand at the 2024 Olympics, FIFA suspended head coach Bev Priestman and two other members of staff for one year.

It is evident, then, that both the EFL and FIFA take this type of regulation violation very severely.

Training sessions in the current professional game are held in strict secrecy, especially those held within a few days of a match; this is why additional restrictions were implemented following the Leeds-Derby Spygate event in 2019.

And any defence of Eckert based on his assumption that it would be OK because eavesdropping is commonly carried out overseas appears equally unlikely to be effective.

Ignorance is no defence in most legal cases, even if it provides a partial explanation for why the club acted the way it did.

He would have been expected to have studied and understood the EFL rule book, but the details provided about the lengths to which the club went to conceal their operations appear to suggest otherwise.

The upcoming World Cup has diverted focus away from home issues, but a potential punishment over Spygate continues to loom over Southampton.

And, while the club’s public support for Tonda Eckert is acceptable in some ways, it is impossible to think that they do not already have some type of contingency plan in place in case Eckert receives a lengthy suspension.

When they will learn the results of the FA’s probe, however, remains as hazy as ever.