Southampton owner says he has no plans to sack head coach Tonda Eckert after Spygate
Southampton owner Dragan Solak says the club will not sack head coach Tonda Eckert, despite his role in spying on Championship opponents.
Southampton were expelled from the Championship play-off final last month after it emerged a junior analyst had been sent to watch semi-final opponents Middlesbrough train ahead of their meeting in the first leg.
An independent commission found Eckert to have authorised a “contrived and determined plan” to spy on opponents in a “deplorable approach”, while on Monday it was revealed that a junior member of staff claimed that Eckert’s demands placed them “under extreme pressure” to act in a way they felt was morally wrong.
As well as Middlesbrough, Southampton admitted to spying on Oxford United and Ipswich Town during the regular Championship season, and they will start next term with a four-point penalty.
In a video message addressed to fans, posted on club channels, Solak said: “I want to close this chapter and look ahead, look ahead together as one – including Tonda and his staff.
“Tonda’s period as head coach has been a success so far. Our form during 2026 has been remarkable, and we believe he is the man to take us forward. As a board, we are fully behind him and together we only have one objective: we want promotion back to the Premier League.
“I also want to thank Johanes (Spors, sporting director) and Phil (Parsons, chief executive officer) for their efforts during this difficult time.”
A message from our Chairman, Dragan Šolak. pic.twitter.com/7qbgXEier7
— Southampton FC (@SouthamptonFC) June 2, 2026
The Football Association is investigating Southampton, and Eckert could still face a ban from the English governing body.
In a separate interview with BBC Sport, Solak added of Eckert: “He will have my support through the process. But if he’s banned, he’s banned. I mean, I can’t put somebody to manage the club if he is not allowed.
“Whatever crime you did, you can be sentenced only once,” he added. “I think we were ‘over-sentenced’. The punishment that the club received was severe and completely disproportionate to the mistake that we made. We lost our chance to win £200million.”
In the same interview with the BBC, Solak claimed the people “at the highest level” of the club “didn’t have a clue” about the spying, initially believing the reports to be “a joke”.
He went on to suggest suggest that some of the responsibility for the situation lay with the intern who was caught observing Middlesbrough’s training session, saying that if he had followed Eckert’s instructions to the letter, EFL rules banning spying up to 72 hours before a match would not have been breached.
“Tonda, not directly, through somebody, told them to go to Middlesbrough on Monday, just to check whether one player is fit or not,” Solak said.
“If they (went) when they were told, actually, it wouldn’t be an offence. It would be outside of 72 hours. They decided not to go… so they left three days later, (and) went straight into the forbidden time.
“But one thing is striking me when I’m reading this. They couldn’t really fear Tonda that much if they are so easily able to just not obey to the orders.”
The Serbian businessman, whose media company acquired a majority stake of the club in 2022, also suggested that the intern could have resisted Tonda’s demands.
“I believe that our junior intern felt personally it’s wrong, and he didn’t feel right for doing this, and I think he should have expressed that stronger,” Solak said. “I’m pretty sure that if (he had) come to us, the top management, actually it would be the seniors who would be punished, not him.”