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Tonda Eckert 'deserves a second chance' - Dragan Solak

Southampton owner Dragan Solak says he will not sack Tonda Eckert, despite the "mistake" the head coach made when authorising a spying campaign against rival Championship clubs. "I think he deserves a second chance and I would give it to him," the Serbian businessman told BBC Sport. "My full support would be behind him actually, because I think he's a super-talented manager."

After a short spell as caretaker boss, Eckert was appointed on a permanent basis in December to lead a Southampton side who were involved in a relegation fight. He guided them not only to safety but to the Championship promotion play-offs after a fourth-place finish.

However, Saints were expelled from the play-offs after admitting observing opponents' training sessions, and they have been deducted four points for the 2026-27 season. An independent disciplinary commission said that Eckert, the club's 33-year-old German boss, accepted he had orchestrated what it called a "contrived and determined plan from the top down".

On Monday, it was revealed that a junior member of staff claimed that Eckert's proposals had placed them "under extreme pressure" to carry out a task they were uncomfortable with and felt was morally wrong. Details emerged after the publication of the written reasons of an arbitration panel appointed to hear Southampton's appeal against their punishment.

Eckert was said to be "surprised" to learn that EFL regulations prohibited the practice. "I believe Tonda that he didn't know that it was the rule that he was breaking," said Solak, whose media company acquired a majority stake of the club in 2022. "My personal opinion, and the opinion of the board, is that he is a manager who deserves to be backed by us and to be supported by us. I will obviously seek advice from the team. I will seek advice from the players, from the fans. But yes, if it's ultimately my decision, he stays."

Speaking from Slovenia, Solak added: "In Italy or in Germany, where Tonda was working, this is basically common practice that nobody cares about." However, Solak said he also issued Eckert with a warning. "I told him: 'You almost broke my heart. You do it again, you'll kill me. The next time I see you in July, if you don't know the EFL book of rules by heart, you can't work for me. Because, we can't have another mistake.' "

"I truly hope that he will learn from this experience and he will achieve an incredible career." Tonda Eckert's job at Southampton appears safe for now at least.

Southampton admitted to charges of spying on Oxford United and Ipswich Town in the regular season, and then Middlesbrough before the play-off semi-final. The Football Association is investigating the scandal and could yet decide to charge Eckert. When asked what he would do if Eckert was eventually banned by the governing body, Solak said: "I can support him even if he's banned, but I can't make him manage if he's banned. My support comes from a very simple legal situation where there is no double jeopardy. "

"Whatever crime you did, you can be sentenced only once. 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 £200m. "

"But if they're going to go again and then double that with [a] ban, we might appeal. But 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. "I'm looking at him as a young, extremely talented manager - the guy who took our club when we were 21st in the table and brought us almost to direct promotion. I am amazed that Tonda is willing to come back in this hostile environment after the witch hunt he had in the media. "I'm pretty sure if the FA decides to ban him, he will get a triple better-paid job in Italy or Germany."

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In a wide-ranging and exclusive interview, Solak insisted he had been unaware of the spying plot, revealing he only found out about it when the news broke last month on social media. "I actually learned from X. I sent a message: 'What the hell is this?' "

"Even people I talked to at the highest level of the club didn't have a clue what was going on. They really thought it was a joke." Describing the punishment Southampton received as "ridiculous", Solak tried to downplay the seriousness of the club's cheating.

"Yes, we tried to obtain an information that was not legally allowed. OK, what you do with this information and how you use it on the pitch, is a different thing. And what is the direct influence of this information on the pitch? "

"On the other side, we can see on almost every game, players diving, trying to basically get a penalty or get a red card. That is not fair. And it's very simple to call this cheating because they know what they're doing, it's much, much more direct influence on the game and the result than whatever we did. "

"I'm not saying that what we did is right. I agree with the league that they want to stop it once for all. I just think that they are not treating every offence equally."

The EFL's commission said it was "deplorable" of the club to have used junior staff members to "conduct the clandestine observations". Solak admitted that such a culture was "unacceptable", but he blamed "a huge amount of misunderstanding, ignorance and arrogance, we have dysfunctions in the club, but we will actually make an effort for people to understand that whoever orders them to do something, that is putting them out of their comfort zone, they have every right to refuse".

When asked about the analyst intern who had been sent to spy on opposition training sessions, and who had been caught doing so at Middlesbrough, Solak said: "I don't see really this culture when somebody is really making junior staff do something they don't want. "

"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. 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."

"I have a lot of pity. I'm sorry for what he had to go through. And we obviously would like him to stay in the club and we offered him a prolonged job with the club."

It has been reported that some of Southampton's players want to leave and may even consider taking legal action against the club over lost promotion bonuses. The team beat Middlesbrough over two legs to reach the play-off final, before they were ejected from the competition. Solak said: "Honestly, it's on them to decide. I had a very open conversation with them, and they were actually very nice. And you could see that they are hurting. But through that, they still behaved as gentlemen. You go through things, but life is fair. "

"If you are a player of Southampton that really has quality to play in Premier League, I'm pretty sure you'll play in Premier League this season or the next."

A Southampton fan in camouflage attire during the second leg of his side's Championship semi-final against Middlesbrough.

The EFL Arbitration Panel condemned the "mystery" of Southampton initially provided misleading information about the spying mission to Middlesbrough. At first the club denied that any video was captured or analysed, before acknowledging that was not the case.

When asked why the club had failed to give an accurate version of events, Solak said: "We were requested by the EFL to respond in 12 hours, ahead of a huge game where everybody's travelling. "

"So the people who made the response had a limited time to try to get the truth. And that's why I think their response was imperfect. During the process later, we absolutely delivered everything we know."

Solak also pointed to the legal advice the club had sought, saying: "When we were preparing for this whole process with the EFL, we hired football expert lawyers, they hired a criminal prosecution expert lawyer. So I would say we have been a bit naive in the whole thing. But since we made a mistake, I'm not going to justify anything."

He added: "I'm completely devastated. As a club, we need to apologise to our fans. They gave everything to us. And I'm sure we gave them a lot of great moments, but at the end we gave them this huge disappointment. So I really feel sorry for them. I feel sorry for the whole club, you know, because few people made a mistake, but the whole club suffers. "

"But all I can tell them is that my dedication to the club is not wavering at all. I think that out of all of this, we will become stronger."