It was posed by the Northern Echo’s Dominic Shaw after Southampton overcame Middlesbrough in the second leg of May’s Championship playoff semi‑final and proved the cue for Tonda Eckert to walk out of his press conference at St Mary’s. Although Southampton’s manager subsequently admitted to authorising spying on opponents, England’s football authorities struggled to decide what punishment best fitted an act some regard as heinous but which others fail to take seriously. Now, in autumn, we finally have an FA verdict, with Eckert given a six-week ban suspended until the end of the 2027-28 season, a £28,000 fine and a reprimand.
Despite the apparent leniency of the sanction, one thing is clear: Eckert’s summer in purgatory surely dictates no sane England-based coach would contemplate engaging in espionage now. Eckert may wish he could turn back time to early May and rewrite history. On the eve of the playoff semi-final first leg on Teesside, William Salt, then an intern Southampton first-team analyst, was caught lurking awkwardly beside a tree while filming a Middlesbrough training session on his iPhone.
Spygate was born and an independent disciplinary commission convened by the Football League (EFL) expelled Southampton from the playoff final against Hull after their win against Boro across two legs. The governing body also decreed the Saints would begin the current Championship season on minus four points. By then Southampton had also admitted to spying on Oxford and Ipswich training.
There is a certain irony that Eckert’s team won none of the three games – albeit Middlesbrough were ultimately beaten on aggregate – involving covert surveillance. Yet the EFL independent disciplinary commission panel made plain its discomfort regarding the “particularly deplorable” pressure placed on a young worker hired on a temporary contract. Salt has since been given a staff job as an analyst in Southampton’s academy and is reportedly progressing well.
With the EFL empowered to sanction clubs but not individuals in such cases, it was down to the FA to punish Eckert. The 33-year-old German issued a public apology in June but was not charged with misconduct by the FA until late July. A further hiatus ensued before a hearing at Wembley on 24 September.
This extraordinary delay afforded Eckert ample time to regret dispatching Salt to Middlesbrough’s training ground adjacent to the luxury Rockliffe Hall Hotel and golf course just south of Darlington. Salt’s primary mission was to discover whether Hayden Hackney, Middlesbrough’s star midfielder and the Championship player of the season, was fit after injury. Unfortunately, clandestine manoeuvres were evidently not his strong suit.
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