Update on Tonda Eckert potential ban at Southampton FC emerges | OneFootball

Five weeks on from confirmation that the FA were investigating Tonda Eckert over Spygate, the future of the Saints boss remains up in the air.

Southampton head coach Tonda Eckert is still at risk of ending up in hot water over the Spygate affair, with the FA's investigation into the scandal still ongoing after five weeks.

Although it's now been almost a month since the end of the 2025-26 season, the Saints remain in limbo over whether head coach Eckert will still be in charge of their team next season.

Eckert is still being investigated by the FA over his involvement in the Spygate scandal which rocked the Championship at the end of 2025-26, with the evidence having indicated that the spying on opposing teams' training sessions was orchestrated by Eckert and other senior members of the club's backroom staff.

But with fixtures for the new season set to be released and the new season just a few weeks away, it remains unclear whether Eckert will be leading Southampton as they plot a return to the Premier League.

At the start of June, he received the backing of chairman Dragon Solak, who has already stated his intention to retain Eckert's services, though his hand may be forced, should the FA ultimately decide on a lengthy ban for the head coach.

FA inquiry into Tonda Eckert remains ongoing, with no end date in sight

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It's now been five weeks since it was confirmed that the FA would be investigating what was going on at St Mary's throughout the 2025-26 season, and the Northern Echo have now reported on the ongoing situation.

They report that "The EFL can only take action against its member clubs but the FA will have looked at who participated, encouraged and, ultimately, was responsible for the spying missions", though they add that this 'could lead to charges and potential bans'.

However, they also report that the investigation remains ongoing, albeit with no indication of when it will be completed.

A range of punishments could be open to the FA in the event that they conclude that rules have been clearly broken, and this could come in the form of fines or a ban from the game altogether.

Eckert himself has already stated that he takes "full responsibility" for what happened, so we might consider that the big question that faces the FA is how seriously they take the EFL's charges, whether Eckert - and possibly others - should be sanctioned, and if so, then how severe any punishment should be.

What Southampton fans have been saying about Tonda Eckert

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Southampton fans have had mixed views on what may happen next with regard to Tonda Eckert over the last few weeks.

One supporter believes that the Saints hierarchy should find a clever way to get around a potential punishment for the German.

And with current players seemingly praising him in regards to their permanent signings at the club, it perhaps shows that Eckert can be forgiven for authorising the spying missions.

Finally, another Saints fan thinks that everyone should move on from the scandal now and let Eckert do his job going into the 2026-27 season.

There is precedent for Tonda Eckert receiving an FA ban from football

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That Southampton would want to keep hold of Tonda Eckert is completely understandable. His team didn't lose a single Championship match over the remainder of the season after losing 2-1 to Hull City in the middle of January, while his team beat Premier League champions Arsenal in the FA Cup and gave Manchester City an almighty scare in their semi-final match before losing 2-1.

Any decision over whether to charge Eckert will be a largely open and shut case. Eckert has already taken "full responsibility" for what happened.

The question will be whether they feel that the rule-breaking was to an extent which warrants further sanction at an individual involved and, if that's the case, what that punishment should be.

The precedent here is mixed. When Leeds United were caught in a very similar position during the 2018-19 season, head coach Marcelo Bielsa was not personally sanctioned, although this was under a different set of rules to those which exist today and the club itself was fined £200,000.

And when staff from Canada's women's team were found guilty of spying on New Zealand at the 2024 Olympics, head coach Bev Priestman and two other members of staff received one-year bans by FIFA.

It is, therefore, clear that both the EFL and FIFA take this sort of rule breach very seriously.

In the modern professional game, training sessions are held in high secrecy, particularly those within a couple of days of a match being played - tis is why new rules were introduced following the Leeds-Derby Spygate incident in 2019.

And it seems unlikely that any defence of Eckert based on him presuming it would be okay because spying is routinely carried out abroad seems equally unlikely to be successful.

Ignorance is no defence in most legal settings, even if it does offer a partial explanation as to why the club acted in the way that it did.

He will have been expected to have read and understood the EFL rule book and regardless of this, the details given of the lengths to which the club sought to mask their activities would seem to indicate something to the contrary of this.

The ongoing World Cup has deflected attention away from domestic matters, but a potential ban over Spygate continues to hang heavy over Southampton.

And while the club's public backing of Tonda Eckert is understandable in some respects, while they remain a possibility, it is difficult to believe that they won't already have some sort of contingency plan in place for if Eckert does receive a lengthy ban.