Spygate: Southampton boss Tonda Eckert handed six-week suspended ban

Tonda Eckert keeps his job as Southampton manager. An independent FA commission has handed him a six-week suspension from all football activity, suspended until the end of the 2027-28 season, together with a £28,000 fine and a reprimand. The 33-year-old German admitted three breaches of FA rule E3.1 for his part in the spying on rival training sessions; the FA had charged him on 22 July.

A training session filmed 48 hours before a play-off semi-final

The story runs back to the 2025-26 season, when Southampton had the training of three opponents watched: Middlesbrough, Oxford United and Ipswich Town. On 7 May, analyst William Salt filmed Middlesbrough’s session 48 hours before the first leg of their play-off semi-final, which ended 0-0. The EFL disciplinary commission described a “contrived and determined plan from the top down”, authorised by Eckert, and an approach “particularly deplorable” because it relied on junior members of staff.

The club has already been punished for the same facts: thrown out of the play-off final in May 2026, Middlesbrough reinstated in its place, then docked four points in this season’s table. The appeal was rejected.

The suspended ban leaves him in the dugout

The suspension takes effect only if Eckert is found guilty, before the end of the 2027-28 season, of a fresh breach: having another club’s training watched or using the information gathered. In the meantime, he leads the Saints from Sunday, for the home derby against Portsmouth at St Mary’s. The FA had asked for a three-month ban; the commission noted his “genuine contrition”. “It’s been a big, big punishment. Absolutely unheard of in the history of sports”, he told BBC Sport in late September, after a public apology.

Owner Dragan Solak took aim at the EFL once the verdict was out: “We have already suffered enough”, he told the Guardian, adding that the way the governing body treated the club afterwards “is not something we will forget”.

Southampton sit 13th in the Championship with four wins from eight matches; without the four-point penalty they would be fourth, according to the Guardian. The uncertainty on the bench is gone four days before the derby: Eckert will be there.