As part of the charges against him, Tonda Eckert allegedly organised three incidents of spying - on Middlesbrough, Oxford United and Ipswich Town.
However, the FA see otherwise.
As part of their investigation that saw them hand the Saints boss a six-week suspended ban and a £28,000 fine, the regulatory body has recognised that Eckert did not organise a circumstance against Ipswich Town in April.
Eckert’s statement
In his witness statement, Eckert said, “We played Ipswich Town FC at home on 28 April 2026. On 27 April 2026, whilst I was walking through the corridor at Staplewood from the dining room to my office, I encountered [person name redacted] who told me that Ipswich would be training locally at Eastleigh Town FC on the day of the game. [Person name redacted] asked me if I wanted to see CCTV footage of that session. I agreed to receive it which I now recognise was wrong. I did not, however, make arrangements to seek or obtain such footage.”
FA representative Brendan Kelly KC grilled Eckert on the Ipswich incident, asking, “So whose decision was it to observe at Ipswich Town?”
Eckert responded, “I have authorised the footage to be sent over to us.”
Brendan Kelly then said, “I am going to say one more and hopefully you’ll answer the question. Whose decision was it to observe, to send an individual from Southampton to Eastleigh in order to observe Ipswich Town?”
Eckert’s response: “I don’t know. The only answer I have is to the footage being sent to us.”
The full reasoning is available on the FA’s website, but this short snippet gives a good insight into the confrontations behind the scenes. Eckert came out as the winning party, overall.
The FA’s reasoning
After review, the FA took the side of Eckert, reasoning there was no reason to question his evidence.
It’s an interesting part of the 46-page document, reading, “In such circumstances, notwithstanding the differences in views, we accept the evidence of Mr Eckert that his ‘involvement’ in the Ipswich Town F.C. Incident was to authorise provision of the footage and not to request it.
“In so far as the contrary is suggested in the evidence before the EFL Commission, we note that [redacted] was not present at the meeting in which [redacted] understands Mr Eckert asked for someone to attend Ipswich Town F.C.’s training session, whilst [redacted] could not recall ‘who exactly made the final decision’. The other witnesses also gave evidence of what they had been told, not directly by Mr Eckert, but by others.
“The Commission is also satisfied, having seen Mr Eckert give evidence and be crossexamined before us (to which we refer in more detail below), that there is no reason to question his evidence on the Ipswich Town F.C. Incident. It would make no sense to accept, as he does, that he initiated spying on training sessions of Oxford United F.C. 13 and Middlesbrough F.C. yet to deny that in respect of Ipswich Town F.C. had it in fact been the case.”
The Spygate saga is now over - Southampton and manager Tonda Eckert can now look ahead to the future. The club will be hoping exciting times are ahead with their young head coach.
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