8 October – Southampton boss Tonda Eckert has been handed a six-week ban, suspension and a small fine by the FA over the ‘Spygate’ scandal. Eckert had pleaded guilty to authorizing three spying incidents and attempting to spy on opposition training sessions within 72 hours of the start of the match.
Eckert’s defense was that he was unaware of the 72-hour blackout rule for watching opposition training sessions – it is common practice in Germany for scouts to watch other teams’ training sessions.
The Spygate scandal came to a head in May when Eckert’s club Southampton beat Middlesbrough to qualify for the Premier League play-offs. Middlesbrough had caught a Southampton intern trying to spy on a training session and lodged a formal complaint with the EFL.
The EFL commissioned Sports Resolutions to conduct an investigation and adjudicate the breach of the rule. The court gave a penalty of eliminating the Saints from the play-offs and giving them a deduction of four points for the start of the current season. Middlesbrough took their place in the play-offs, losing to Hull.
The Sports Resolution panel raised questions about the integrity of the EFL and its judicial role. One member of the tribunal had actually played for Middlesbrough, another had carried out legal work for the club and the presiding judge shared a courtroom with the barrister who had worked for the club. All three were found unanimously in favor of Middlesbrough.
In July, the FA stepped in and accused Eckert of bringing the game into disrepute and handed down a six-week ban, suspended until the 2027-28 season, and a £28,000 fine. Eckert remains on the touchline, starting with Sunday’s home derby against Portsmouth at St Mary’s.
The EFL’s “independent” commission found that Eckert was behind an “artificial and determined plan” to spy on the three clubs, although no advantage could be shown to have been gained from watching the training session at Ipswich and Charlton (one game was drawn and the other lost), and the club intern watching Middlesbrough was kicked out of the golf club and adjacent open training facilities.
So does any punishment fit the crime? The club missed out on a promotion chance worth around £200m and have a points deduction.
Kings Council Sir Nicholas Mostyn, a Saints fan, wrote two columns for Insideworldfootball, questioning the integrity of the process, the constitution of the judicial commission and whether the club could take civil action for what could be argued was a disproportionate sanction that favored the whistleblower (Middlesbrough).
See: Edition: Sir Nicholas Mostyn. Southampton FC – Admiral Byng is shot…
Addendum of opinions: Demonizing Saints and the emergence of prejudice
Saints owner Dragan Solak believes the club had already been “over-judged”. He said in June: “Whatever crime you have committed, you can only be convicted once.” After Wednesday’s ruling, he said the FA had seen he was “simply a good person who made bad decisions”, adding that the club would not forget how the EFL had dealt with him.
The wider issue for the EFL and sporting rulings is about the sporting integrity of the championship and the judicial integrity of the tribunal in relation to the appearance of bias.
The Saints won the battle on the pitch without gaining any clear competitive advantage from the spying incident. But they lost politics off the pitch in the corridors of the EFL and Sports Resolutions where it seems they were never given a chance.
So who were the real cheaters?
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