{"id":7031,"date":"2026-06-02T14:35:44","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T14:35:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/06\/02\/southampton-backs-spygate-eckert-despite-worlds-most-lucrative-game-miss\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T14:35:44","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T14:35:44","slug":"southampton-backs-spygate-eckert-despite-worlds-most-lucrative-game-miss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/06\/02\/southampton-backs-spygate-eckert-despite-worlds-most-lucrative-game-miss\/","title":{"rendered":"Southampton backs \u2018spygate\u2019 Eckert despite world\u2019s most lucrative game miss"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><em>Southampton back Tonda Eckert despite missing out on a playoff final for a Premier League place due to spying scandal.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div aria-live=\"polite\" aria-atomic=\"true\">\n<p>Southampton manager Tonda Eckert has apologised for orchestrating the \u201cspygate\u201d scandal that led to the club\u2019s expulsion from the Championship playoffs, as owner Dragan Solak insisted that he would not sack the German.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor everything that\u2019s happened, I do want to apologise, and I hold my hand up because as a head coach I am responsible for everything that has happened in this football club,\u201d Eckert said in a video statement on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<section>\n<h2>Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n<p><span>list of 4 items<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span>list 1 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/sports\/2026\/6\/2\/tennis-stars-rejoice-as-serena-williams-announces-competitive-comeback\">\u2018Dreams come true\u2019: Tennis stars relish Serena Williams\u2019s on-court comeback<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 2 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/sports\/2026\/5\/31\/south-africas-world-cup-2026-departure-delayed-over-mexican-visa-debacle\">\u2018Embarrassing\u2019 visa debacle delays South Africa\u2019s World Cup 2026 departure<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 3 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/sports\/2026\/5\/31\/from-afcon-to-world-cup-2026-how-morocco-became-a-football-powerhouse\">African powerhouse Morocco eye World Cup 2026 glory despite AFCON fallout<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 4 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/sports\/2026\/5\/30\/vallejo-fined-for-sexist-remarks-about-female-referee-at-french-open\">Vallejo fined for sexist remarks about female referee at French Open<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n<p>The Saints were <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/sports\/2026\/5\/19\/southampton-expelled-from-worlds-most-lucrative-football-match-for-spying\">kicked out<\/a> of last month\u2019s playoff final after admitting they had observed a training session held by semifinal opponents Middlesbrough, as well as two other similar incidents during the season.<\/p>\n<p>They also received a four-point deduction that will be applied to the 2026-27 Championship table, while the Football Association has opened its own investigation and could yet charge Eckert.<\/p>\n<p>An independent disciplinary commission of the English Football League (EFL) ruled that there had been a \u201ccontrived and determined plan from the top down to gain a competitive advantage\u201d through spying missions.<\/p>\n<p>It said Eckert had authorised the tactics, highlighting the \u201cparticularly deplorable\u201d use of junior members of staff to conduct clandestine operations.<\/p>\n<p>Southampton beat Middlesbrough 2-1 over two legs in the playoff semifinals, but Boro were reinstated, going on to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/sports\/2026\/5\/23\/hull-beat-boro-in-worlds-most-lucrative-game-to-reach-premier-league\">lose in the final<\/a> to Hull City, who were promoted to the Premier League.<\/p>\n<p>The prize for the winners of the final is regarded as the most lucrative in world football, with the winners joining the richest domestic league in the world. Hull will receive an estimated 200 million pounds ($268m) in extra income.<\/p>\n<p>Eckert, who was appointed head coach in December, put out an eight-minute video statement about the scandal on Southampton\u2019s social media channels.<\/p>\n<p>The 33-year-old said: \u201cI am devastated that after six months of building that relationship [with fans] back up, the season has come to an end, come to an end that couldn\u2019t have left us in a worse place than we are in right now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He claimed that observing other teams was routine in other countries, though he admitted that this was not an excuse for his actions in the English second tier.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I worked in Italy for over four years, every starting lineup that we\u2019ve chosen for the games was always out in the media before games,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd the reason is that our training sessions, especially the ones before games, have always been observed from the media and have always been observed from opponent teams that we came up against.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[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.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Many had anticipated Eckert would lose his job after Southampton\u2019s expulsion from the playoffs, but chairman Solak gave robust backing to Eckert in his own post on the club\u2019s channels on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTonda\u2019s 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,\u201d Solak said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs a board, we are fully behind him, and together we only have one objective \u2013 we want promotion back to Premier League.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Solak told the BBC separately that Tonda had been subject to a witch-hunt in the media, saying he believed the club had been \u201cover-sentenced\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The Serbian, whose media company acquired a majority stake in the south-coast club in 2022, said: \u201cI believe Tonda that he didn\u2019t know that it was the rule that he was breaking.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy personal opinion, and the opinion of the board, is that he is a manager who deserves to be backed by us and to be supported by us.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Southampton back Tonda Eckert despite missing out on a playoff final for a Premier League place due to spying scandal. Southampton manager Tonda Eckert has apologised for orchestrating the \u201cspygate\u201d scandal that led to the club\u2019s expulsion from the Championship playoffs, as owner Dragan Solak insisted that he would not sack the German. \u201cFor everything &#8230; <a title=\"Southampton backs \u2018spygate\u2019 Eckert despite world\u2019s most lucrative game miss\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/06\/02\/southampton-backs-spygate-eckert-despite-worlds-most-lucrative-game-miss\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Southampton backs \u2018spygate\u2019 Eckert despite world\u2019s most lucrative game miss\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7032,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7031\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}