Tonda Eckert speaks out on Spygate and says sorry to Southampton players, staff and supporters

Tonda Eckert speaks out on Spygate for the first time and says sorry to Southampton players, staff and supporters.

A video of the Saints head coach has emerged, giving context to the incidents, shortly after the club owner Dragan Solak explained why Eckert wouldn’t be sacked over the Spygate situation.

Southampton were removed from the Championship playoff final and handed a 4 point deduction for the 2026/27 season after Eckert accepted responsibility to spying on clubs.

Dragan said Eckert was surprised and didn’t realise it was a rule he was breaking. He added that ‘in Italy or in Germany, where Tonda was working, this is basically common practice that nobody cares about.”

A personal message from Head Coach, Tonda Eckert. pic.twitter.com/dHlDdF6XFd

— Southampton FC (@SouthamptonFC) June 2, 2026

In the video posted on the club’s social media, Eckert said: “Hi Saint supporters. What I’m going to say is not going to be perfect, but I will try to be as honest and clear as I can be and I think you deserve that.

“For everything that’s happened, I do want to apologise and I hold my hand up because as a head coach, I am responsible. I am responsible for everything that has happened in this football club. I am responsible for everything that has happened in my coaching staff.

“I do apologise to the supporters, to everyone who has traveled with us, who has supported us over so many games, to the ones who have shared emotions game by game, who have managed to bring us all the way up to this very end of the season, where we were supposed to play the biggest game of the season.

“I apologise to the players who have done absolutely everything that they can, absolutely everything in the last six months to bring this football club back to where it belongs. They would have deserved to play the final. They would have deserved to play the final with you, just like they’ve done two years ago and just like they’ve done in the semi-final against Man City.

“40,000 of you traveling to Wembley to support the team. The chance to bring the last six months to an end that the season would have deserved. It hurts and it hurts to see the employees of the football club, hurts to see the staff, it hurts to see the players who have invested so much in the preparation for games, who have invested so much to leave their families at home to recover and to prepare for the games coming up. Who it hurts so much to see their pain on the day the decision came in, because it has such a big impact, not just on them and their career, but also on their families.

“I apologise to all of the clubs that have been involved and mostly I apologise to our supporters. I have come to this football club in the summer as a under 21’s head coach. And I have seen from the very first day what this club stands for.

“I’ve seen that the club has suffered a lot, especially in the last season. And that it needed a restart for us to grow the connection to the supporters, grow the connection within the community. And I felt with a chance and with the trust that I’ve got from November onwards, I have done everything that I could every single minute of my life to bring this connection back to the club, bring the connection back between the team and the supporters. And I feel that this connection has grown week by week and month after month.

“Even more so, I am devastated that after six months of building that relationship back up, the season has come to an end. Come to an end that couldn’t have left us in a worse place than we are in right now. When I worked in Italy for over four years, every starting lineup that we’ve chosen for the games was always out in the media before games. And the reason is that our training sessions, especially the ones before games, have always been observed, have always been observed from media and have always been observed from opponent teams that we came up against.

“Guardiola has spoken about this at his time at Bayern Munich that it has been common practice in Germany to observe training sessions, knowing that other teams will do the same. I don’t want to say this to excuse anything that we have done.

“I just want to give you context in the way that I grew up in the football world. There’s different rules in England, there’s different rules from the EFL, and I should have known them.

“I would like to give you context to the incidents that we have been charged with against Oxford. We have prepared the game and we have been very consistent in the months of November and December in our starting lineup. When we were preparing the game, we found out that Oxford have changed their manager.

“And while we looked into the way that they have played over previous weeks, we’ve also seen that the interim manager has always and his previous interim stations have always preferred a different formation. So we have decided to send someone to have a look at the training session to see if they would switch from a bag five to a bag four.

“Regarding the Ipswich game, we were informed that Ipswich were training at Easley on the day of the game. When I came into the meeting room two hours before kickoff to prepare my pre-match meeting, I was shown the footage for the first time. I’ve asked it to be stopped and none of it had any effect on how we played the game on the same evening. When I look back at the preparation for the semi-final against Middlesbrough, we have met and a coaching staff on Monday.

“And while we prepared for the game, also wanted to find out if Middlesbrough would play with Hayden Hackney and if he would be back fit for the game. And we have made a decision on Monday to send somebody to observe a training session and find out if he would be available for the game or not. We have trained on Tuesday and we have finished our preparation on Wednesday. And on Wednesday we have given the starting lineup to our players. And we have finished our tactical preparation. We have disclosed our training session and we have disclosed our meeting from Wednesday to show. And this is the bitter irony of the cases that none of what has happened had any effect on the sporting performance.

“I don’t want to use this as an excuse, but just as much as I promise honesty and clarity, I also want to give you a little bit of context. And I think you deserve to have some context to what has happened.

“It has been the players and it has always been the players and every single game who have made the difference. It has been the players who for many months have sacrificed everything in their private life to put this football club back to the Premier League.

“I am a young coach. I have made a mistake and I take full responsibility. I want to thank Dragan and the board for the support, especially in times like this. With everything that I have said, without script and without predefined statement, speaking to you from the heart. I hope that you have an overview of what has happened over the last weeks and I hope that over time you can understand and forgive. And I hope to see you all soon.”

Southampton owner explains why he WON’T be sacking Tonda Eckert over Spygate

Here’s what fans are saying Tonda Eckert speaks out on Spygate and says sorry to Southampton players, staff and supporters…

@IamBalhamMatt: Tonda what you did was wrong but any injustice was swiftly eclipsed by the disgustingly disproportionate punishment received from a biased EFL panel with confirmed links to Middlesbrough and undeclared conflicts of interest. We’ll back you all the way.

@PlayzytStyle: Haven’t even watched it yet but I’m backing him. Tonda straight to the very top again 😍🔴⚪️🔴⚪️

@FlameEon: This is exactly what was needed. Excellent statement #tondain

@charliewring1: You know what, I don’t care what anyone else says, this man is the dogs bollocks. Un-scripted, truly personal heartfelt message, I am thoroughly impressed, he could have just hidden in the shadows, but no faces it head on, gives context to his decisions and truly apologises. My Gaffer. #SaintsFC

@SFCTom123: I was so strongly Tonda out. After emotions settled I started to be in the middle. Statement from him and Dragan I can see myself warming again to the idea. Importantly I don’t care if #SaintsFC are ‘liked’ or ‘hated’ id rather be hated and win then liked and lose.

@AlishaW1709: This is exactly what we wanted. And to provide the clear reasons why they did and the context is the right thing to do. No sporting advantage was made. And he is contrite. It will take a long time to get over the hurt. But I’m ready to back this team to the end. #SaintsFC

@Saints_CJL: It doesn’t excuse him at all but he’s given perspective without being scripted. It’s a monumental lesson for him and – more importantly – the club. I have no doubt that he’d do all he can to get us promoted & we need to start strong next season as early as possible. #SaintsFC

@JordanStevens92: This is what I wanted to see all along. An apology, an explanation and a bit of hope for the season ahead along with the message from Solak. Let’s put this behind us and go full speed ahead on preparations for next season. Tonda In. #saintsfc