Southampton's shamed spygate manager Tonda Eckert has released a remarkable eight-minute 'apology' for the scandal that saw his side thrown out of the Championship play-offs.  

After leaked WhatsApp messages revealed the German showing his 'love' of cheating piled even more pressure on Saints to dismiss the architect of their spying, owner Dragan Solak has opted to stick with Eckert. 

Southampton shared two video statements from Solak and Eckert on social media on Tuesday morning.  

Eckert, speaking in full for the first time since the ruling, hardly blinked in the lengthy video, saying: 'Hi, Saints 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.

'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 travelled with us, who has supported us over so many games.'

In the clip entitled: 'A personal message from Tonda Eckert', he went on: '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.

'We were supposed to play the biggest game of the season. I apologise to the players, who have done absolutely everything that they can. They have done absolutely everything in the last six months to bring this club back to where it belongs. They would have deserved to play the final.'

He added: '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. 

'It hurts to see the employees of the club, it hurts to see the staff, it hurts to see the players who have invested so much in the preparation for games.

'Those who have invested so much to leave their families at home to recover and to prepare for the games coming up, who had hurt 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.'

Eckert then went on to 'give context' to the spying, arguing that his experiences in different leagues have coloured his thinking. 

He explained: 'When I worked in Italy for over four years, every starting line-up that we've chosen for the games was always out in the media before games.

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

'[Pep] 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 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.

'There are different rules in England. There are different rules from the EFL. And I should have known them.'

In damning revelations from the written reasons into the club’s failed appeal against their expulsion from the Championship play-offs, the extent of the spying operation and the involvement of Eckert was exposed on Monday.

So, too, were Southampton’s attempts to cover up their cheating after Daily Mail Sport broke the story of intern William Salt being caught recording Middlesbrough’s training session from behind a tree ahead of their play-off semi-final.

WhatsApp messages obtained during the subsequent EFL investigation reveal how Salt was told, ‘You legend. Manager loved it’ after a spying mission on Oxford United in December.

Regarding the Oxford mission, Eckert went on: '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 line-up.

'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, in his previous interim stations, preferred a different formation.

'We have decided to send someone to have a look at the training session to see if they would switch from a back five to a back four.

'Regarding the Ipswich game, we were informed that Ipswich were training at Eastleigh 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.'

Eckert also said the primary reason for sending the intern to spy on Middlesbrough was to find out if star player Hayden Hackney would be fit. 

'When I look back at the preparation for the semi-final against Middlesbrough, we had met as a coaching staff on Monday. While we prepared for the game, we also wanted to find out if Middlesbrough would play with Hayden Hackney and if he would be back fit for the game.

'We had decided 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. 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.

'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.

'I think you deserve to have some context to what has happened. It has been the players, and it has always been the players.

'In every single game, it is the players 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 in 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 a predefined statement. Speaking to you from the heart, I hope that you have an overview of what has happened over the last weeks.

'I hope that over time you can understand and forgive, and I hope to see you all soon.'

The club's Serbian millionaire owner, Solak, also addressed the situation and appeared keen to shift blame, citing the mistakes 'made at club level'. 

He said: 'It's important to apologise for how we handled the matters in the early stages of the process. We have to be better.

'Mistakes have been made and we will learn from them. Let me take this opportunity to reaffirm how committed I am to bringing success to St Mary's.

'The price we have to pay for our mistakes feels disproportionate, but we accept it.

'I'd like to address the EFL decision one final time before we close this chapter. We accept that mistakes have been made at the club level. Rules have been broken. There must be a consequence and I'll take responsibility for that. But I also believe the sanction imposed is grossly disproportionate.

'The level of breach combined with the outcome of previous cases makes this feel incredibly harsh.

'It's the fans, as well as the players, who suffer the most, many of whom had already made arrangements for Wembley once the semi-finals went ahead.

'I also believe that the competition itself loses credibility. Suggesting that decisions made off the pitch can see results on the field simply wiped out cannot be good for the game.

'As I have said, I want to close this chapter and look ahead. And I want to look ahead together as one, including Tonda and his staff.'

On Eckert's future, Solak confirmed that the German would be staying in charge despite plenty of calls for him to be sacked. 

He added: 'Tonda's period as our 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.

'But my final and most important thank you is to you, our supporters. You are the heartbeat of the club and our future success can only happen with you behind us.

'We will work with the FA in the coming weeks to make everything right and to put this whole situation behind us so we can focus on building the club and the team and the unity and the community of Saints that everybody can only be proud of.'

On Monday, it was revealed both Salt and another analyst had reservations about carrying out the spying instructions. In evidence to the independent disciplinary commission, Salt said: ‘I didn’t really have an option and wasn’t provided an opportunity to say no. I was an intern and was doing what I was told.

Reflecting on how the whole incident played out, the intern told the independent disciplinary commission in his evidence: 'I didn't really have an option and wasn't provided an opportunity to say no. I was an intern and was doing what I was told.'

The appeal panel noted: ‘There was evidence from the intern and (another analyst) that an analyst had lost his job earlier in the season, and there was a concern that they might lose theirs too. They felt pressurised to do the observations that Mr Eckert and the senior coaches wished them to do.’

After Salt was caught at Middlesbrough, another analyst sent him a WhatsApp and said: ‘I said all along I was never happy about it all & it wasn’t right but no one listened to me!

The full report details the staggering practice of Southampton’s spying, which the panel states was ‘a contrived and determined plan from the top down’.

Regarding the Oxford incident, the report says Eckert wanted to know whether their opponents' caretaker boss Craig Short would play with a back four or back five in their Boxing Day clash and if Cameron Brannagan was fit to play, which resulted in Salt being asked to watch Saints' opponents train.

The Middlesbrough incident records how Salt felt ‘under extreme pressure due to the importance of the game for the club’ after Eckert proposed spying on their session.

The report notes: ‘He felt bound to take videos on his phone because (as he said in a message to another analyst after he was caught), he felt pressurised by the coaches: “With them all telling me they want more out of it than what I got at Oxford as got it wrong etc they clearly don’t think my word is good enough so wallop there’s your footage”.’

The analyst even suggested to Salt that he should not go to Middlesbrough and simply report back that the security was too tight and that ‘Eckert would be none the wiser’.

But the club booked flights and two nights in a hotel for Salt and he was shown drone footage of where he could stand to observe training. He was told that Eckert was unhappy that he had not travelled up 24 hours earlier to observe an extra day of training.

It was then, on Thursday May 7, that the intern was confronted by Middlesbrough staff and fled the area. Salt was on a train back to Southampton when Daily Mail Sport exclusively revealed that he had been caught ‘spying’, as the commission recorded. Even so, Eckert was still presented by another analyst with a breakdown of Boro’s potential tactics from Salt’s videos.

Attempts to cover up the spying then began and Salt removed his picture from LinkedIn. It was also suggested internally that the media team should remove his presence on Manager of the Month pictures with Eckert. However, Daily Mail Sport had already obtained these pictures and later revealed the strong links between the intern and the manager.