Southampton manager Tonda Eckert accepted he had signed off on the plan to spy on opponents’ training sessions, which led to the club’s exclusion from the Championship play-off final, an independent disciplinary committee said in its ruling.
The committee, appointed by the English Football League, said junior staffers were pressured to carry out the spying in order to gain a sporting advantage over opponents including Middlesbrough, who had beaten Southampton in the semi-finals.
Middlesbrough will replace Southampton against Hull City on Saturday in the play-off final, known as the richest match in football because of the riches of the Premier League awaiting the winner.
“Mr Eckert accepted, as he must, that information such as team selection and injuries are sensitive information that a club would want to keep private in the run-up to a match,” the commission wrote in its ruling.
“He also accepted that he had specifically authorized the observations to obtain information about the formation and the availability of a key player.”
The committee, which also handed Southampton a four-point penalty for the following season, criticized the way junior staff were used in the spy programme.
“The manner in which junior staff members were pressured to carry out activities that they believed were, at the very least, morally wrong,” the commission said in its written reasons for the ruling, which the EFL published on Thursday.
“Such personnel were in a vulnerable position, without job security and with limited ability to object or resist the instructions given to them.”
Published on May 22, 2026
