Southampton boss posts apology video after 'Spygate' scandal

Southampton head coach Tonda Eckert has posted an apology video after the club's "Spygate" scandal, saying: "I am responsible for everything that has happened."

The Championship club were thrown out of the play-off final last month after admitting sending a young intern to spy on a Middlesbrough training session.

The EFL said the club were found guilty of a "deplorable" act of putting pressure on the junior member of staff to spy on Boro.

In a damning verdict, the governing body said Eckert authorised the spying.

The German has now put out a lengthy video statement on the club's X account, which began: "I will try to be as honest and clear as I can be."

He added: "For everything that has happened, I do want to apologise and I hold my hand up because as head coach I am responsible.

"I am responsible for everything that has happened at this football club."

Eckert also said he wanted to provide "context" by explaining that spying was common in other countries, though it did not "excuse anything that we have done".

"When I worked in Italy for over four years, every starting line-up that we have chosen for the games was always out in the media before games," he said.

"The reason is that our training sessions, especially the ones before games, have always been observed from the media and have always been observed by opponent teams that we came up against.

"(Pep) Guardiola has spoken about this in his time at Bayern Munich, that it has been common practice in Germany to observe training sessions knowing that other teams would 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."

Read more from Sky News:
Body found in search for 11-year-old in Yorkshire river
The downfall of ex-SNP chief executive Peter Murrell

The Saints were also found guilty of spying on Ipswich and Oxford during the regular season.

Shortly before Eckert's statement was released, club owner Dragan Solak put out his own statement backing the 33-year-old.

"Tonda's period as our head coach has been a success so far," Solak said.

"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 have only one objective: we want promotion back to the Premier League."

Eckert thanked Solak and the club's board for their support.

"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," he said.

He added: "With everything that I have said, without (a) script and without (b) 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 time you can understand and forgive, and I hope to see you all soon."

(c) Sky News 2026: Southampton boss posts apology video after 'Spygate' scandal