Shock full details of Southampton spying on Oxford revealed

Saints were kicked out of the Championship play-off final last month after being found to have breached EFL rules by spying on Middlesbrough, Ipswich Town and the U’s.

After beating Boro in the semi-final, Southampton were replaced by the Teesside club in the final at Wembley who were then beaten 1-0 by Hull City, the Tigers securing promotion to the Premier League.

Previous details of Tonda Eckert’s side spying on Oxford back in December had been revealed, stating that the Saints boss wanted information on the formation of caretaker head coach Craig Short’s Yellows.

Oxford United’s Stanley Mills (right) celebrates scoring their side’s second goal of the game against Southampton (Image: Bradley Collyer/PA Wire)

The St Mary’s club has since published a statement on their website in light of the recent details, as well as a statement from the chairman – he says he will not sack Eckert following the offences – and the head coach on social media.

The German boss has apologised to players, staff, and supporters, claiming he is responsible and saying: “I’m a young coach and made a mistake.”

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Southampton owner Dragan Solak, who has insisted he will not sack head coach Tonda Eckert over ‘Spygate’ if the decision comes down to him (Image: Andrew Matthews/PA Wire)

The panel’s written reasons for Saints’ spying on United read: “A few days before Christmas, Oxford sacked their Manager, Gary Rowett, and replaced him with an interim manager, Craig Short. Mr Rowett had usually played with a back five.

“At a Southampton coaching and analyst meeting in preparation for the match, Mr Eckert asked if someone could go to observe the Oxford training session to see how they were lining up and whether a particular player (Cameron Brannagan) was fit to play.

“Mr Eckert said that he did not see any issue in doing this: he said he was surprised to learn, after the Middlesbrough Incident, that observing an opposition team shortly before a match was a breach of the Regulations.

Southampton’s Cyle Larin (left) and Oxford United’s Michal Helik in action (Image: Peter Tarry/PA Wire)

“The junior analyst intern duly attended Oxford’s training ground, where he was able to observe from public areas and footpaths.

“During the course of the training session, he sent updates, photographs and videos to analyst 1 and analyst 3 concerning matters such as tactical shape and player selection.

Saints instructed the intern to return the following day where he observed that Oxford would line up with a back four rather than a back five.

The written reasons continued: “Whilst Mr Eckert said that he did not personally view the footage from the training session and maintained that the information obtained had no impact on the match preparation, during the period of observation and following the provision of some information, analyst 1 messaged the junior analyst intern on WhatsApp: “Try and make out as much as you can please. You legend. Manager loved it.””