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Southampton have been charged with misconduct by the English Football League and will face an independent disciplinary commission set to be convened “at the earliest opportunity”.
Middlesbrough remain furious after catching a man they maintain belongs to Tonda Eckert’s backroom staff allegedly spying on a vital training session before Saturday’s Championship playoff semi-final first leg against Southampton at the Riverside Stadium.
It is understood that Steve Gibson, Boro’s owner, will expect the south coast club to be punished severely. Under a rule introduced to deal specifically with spying in 2019, such cases are dealt with by independent disciplinary panels with the power to impose a wide range of punishments ranging from reprimands to fines, points deductions and, in extreme cases, expulsion from the competition.
Under EFL regulations Southampton would ordinarily have 14 days to respond to their two charges but, in a statement, the governing body said it had asked the disciplinary commission to “convene a hearing at the earliest opportunity”.
On Thursday Middlesbrough reported that a Southampton employee had been caught filming and making audio recordings of Boro’s manager, Kim Hellberg, taking training at their Rockliffe Park base near Darlington after being spotted hiding in bushes.
It is understood Middlesbrough possess compelling CCTV footage of an incident that concluded with the man they allege is a Southampton first-team analyst entering a toilet at the adjacent Rockliffe Hall hotel and re-emerging with a changed appearance.
Late on Friday night the EFL charged Southampton with breaches of regulation 3.4, which requires clubs to act towards each other with the utmost good faith and regulation 127, which prohibits any club from observing, or attempting to observe, another club’s training session within 72 hours of a scheduled match between the two.
With St Mary’s due to stage the semi-final second leg on Tuesday night it remains unclear when the disciplinary panel will sit. Should that commission find Southampton guilty, sanctions could be informed by two wildly differing precedents involving the former Leeds manager Marcelo Bielsa and the former Canada Women head coach Bev Priestman.
In 2019 Leeds were fined £200,000 and reprimanded after a member of Bielsa’s staff was spotted watching Derby train before a Championship match against Frank Lampard’s then side. At that time the EFL had no specific anti-spying rule but still found Leeds had breached regulation 3.4.
After the incident it introduced regulation 127 and then, in 2024, Fifa faced a landmark spying case with potential ramifications for individual countries and ruling bodies.
Two years ago Priestman, previously the assistant manager of England women during Phil Neville’s tenure, and two other Canada women officials were banned from football for a year by Fifa after being found guilty of using drones to spy on opponents at the Paris Olympics. Canada, gold medallists at the previous Olympics in Tokyo, were also docked six Olympic group stage points.
Priestman, widely acknowledged as among the most talented coaches in the women’s game, was sacked by Canada and now works in New Zealand managing Wellington Phoenix A-League.
Southampton have enjoyed an impressive improvement since Eckert, a 33-year-old former analyst for Germany men’s national team, took charge in November. They are unbeaten in their past 19 league games and beat Arsenal to reach the FA Cup semi-finals.
Although Boro officials forced the alleged spy, thought to be in his early 20s, to delete the mobile phone footage he had filmed the club remain concerned he had the chance to watch Hellberg’s dead-ball routines and they fear his recording may have earlier been downloaded by an office-based colleague.
Boro’s gameplan will be influenced by the availability or otherwise of Hayden Hackney. The division’s outstanding midfielder has recently recovered from a calf injury but Hellberg has kept this chances of involvement a closely guarded secret.
Boro have asked fans to line the approach roads to the Riverside side and welcome their team bus with applause and flag waving before kick-off. Southampton’s coach will make the same journey and can expect a rather more hostile reception on a day with the potential, in the words of one insider, to turn “venomous”.
Southampton issued a statement on Friday after the charges were confirmed saying they “acknowledge the statement issued by the EFL in relation to alleged breaches of regulations. We can confirm that we will be fully cooperating with the league throughout this process. Given the ongoing nature of the matter, the club is unable to comment any further at this time.”
