Following the recent espionage scandal that has engulfed Southampton, manager Tonda Eckert has issued a public apology via social media, accepting full responsibility for the club’s actions and providing context for the individual instances of misconduct.

The Saints were kicked out of the Championship playoff finals last month after admitting to multiple violations of federation rules, specifically those “requiring Clubs to act with the utmost good faith and prohibiting the observation of another Club’s training session within 72 hours of a scheduled match.”

The controversy, dubbed “Spygate,” broke on May 8 after Southampton were charged with spying on potential playoff opponents Middlesbrough. A Southampton junior performance analyst was captured on CCTV at Middlesbrough’s training ground and accused of recording the session. Southampton then filed separate charges after admitting to additional breaches in a December match against Oxford United and an April game with Ipswich Town.

Southampton’s violation of EFL rules tarnishes the club’s progress and swift turnaround in form in the second half of the season, when it rose from 15th to fifth in the table to secure a playoff spot. Despite the event, Southampton owner Dragan Šolak stated that the club will not fire Eckert or his staff. However, Eckert might still face a ban from the Football Association, barring him from playing for an English team.

In addition to missing out on the possibility to win about $295 million in the Championship promotion playoffs, Southampton will begin the current season with a four-point penalty.

Eckert Sends Apology to Fans, Explains Spying

“Hello, Saints fans,” the manager began in a video posted on X. “What I’m going to say won’t be flawless, but I’ll do my best to be honest and straightforward… I apologise for everything that has happened, and I raise my hand because, as head coach, I am accountable for everything that has occurred in this football club.

“I do apologise to the supporters…for the ones who have managed to bring us to the very end of the season, where we were supposed to play the biggest game of the season,” he said of his team’s elimination from playoffs. “I apologise to the players who have done everything they can in the previous six months to get this football club back to where it belongs. “They would have deserved to play in the final.”

The 33-year-old German attributed his staff’s espionage to the differences in conditions between different domestic soccer leagues.

“When I worked in Italy for over four years, every starting lineup that we had chosen for games was always out in the media before games, and the reason is that our training sessions, especially the ones before games, have always been observed from media and observed from opponent teams that we came up against,” he stated.

“It has become regular practice in Germany to observe training sessions while other teams are doing the same. I’m not saying this to excuse anything we’ve done, but rather to provide context for how I grew up and the football world. There are distinct rules from the EFL, which I should have understood.”

Eckert’s claim that he was unaware of the EFL rules comes amid reports from the League Arbitration Panel that some performance analysts objected to Eckert’s request to observe opponents’ trainings, with the employee watching Middlesbrough fleeing the scene after being apprehended, quickly changing clothes in the bathroom, and deleting his LinkedIn account for fear of being tracked down online.

Eckert Explains Specific Spying Instances

Eckert then validated the other two spying allegations: illegally monitoring Oxford’s practice before of their 2-1 loss on December 26 and Ipswich Town’s 2-2 draw on April 28.

His decision to spy on Oxford was prompted by the arrival of interim management Craig Short at the University of Oxford. “We decided to send someone to the training session to see if they would switch from a back-five to a back-four,” Eckert stated.

Regarding the Ipswich incident, which resulted in a 2-2 tie, Eckert revealed that he was unaware of it: “When I entered the conference room two hours before kickoff to prepare my prematch meeting. I saw the footage for the first time. I requested for it to be halted, and none of it affected how we played the game that evening.”

Eckert was aware of the Middlesbrough espionage incident last month, but was more interested in finding out the status of star player Hayden Hackney for the Championship semifinals. “We had made a decision on Monday to send somebody to observe the training session and find out if he would be available for the game or not.”

Southampton won the contest 2-1 on aggregate to proceed to the final; however, Eckert insisted that none of the spying episodes changed the outcome on the pitch. He argued that the club’s fast rise in the second half of the season was entirely due to the improved performances of Southampton’s players.

“This is the bit of the irony of the cases,” he replied. “None of what happened had any impact on our athletic performance… It has always been the players in each game who have made the difference.”

It is unclear whether the FA will allow Eckert to continue teaching.