Southampton manager Tonda Eckert apologised to fans in a video broadcast on Tuesday, again insisting that spying on opposition training sessions is common practice in Germany.
“When I worked in Italy for four years, every starting line-up we chose was out in the media before games, and the reason is our training sessions – especially the ones before games – have always been observed by media and opponent teams,” the 33-year-old said.
Eckert also referenced Pep Guardiola’s time at Bayern Munich, claiming it had “been common practice in Germany to observe training sessions, knowing that other teams would do the same.”
The Southampton manager joined as Under-21s boss last summer before taking charge of the first team in the autumn, and admitted ignorance of EFL rules that ultimately saw Saints thrown out of last month’s Championship play-offs.
Eckert now faces a Football Association investigation into his conduct and could receive a ban if charged and found guilty.
Spying can be conducted more easily in Germany because many Bundesliga clubs hold open training sessions attended by the public, meaning opposition staff could in theory attend and record observations freely.
Guardiola confirmed that his Bayern side, which he coached between 2013 and 2016, was subject to spying, with no Bundesliga rules banning the practice at the time.
“In other countries everyone does it, [but] it’s more difficult here,” Guardiola said of English football in 2019. “At Munich there were people with cameras watching what we do.”
RB Leipzig manager Ole Werner admitted that during his time coaching Werder Bremen he had drones fly over opposition training grounds and sent backroom staff to hide in bushes.
Under previous Werder boss Florian Kohfeldt, the club was forced to apologise after a video analyst was caught flying a drone over Hoffenheim’s training ground, triggering a police investigation into a potential aviation offence.
Former Borussia Dortmund manager Edin Terzic also admitted disguising himself as a steward to watch a Real Madrid training session ahead of a Champions League fixture in 2013.
Bundesliga match commentator Kevin Hatchard says the reaction to spying in Germany differs significantly from the furore surrounding Southampton’s case this season.
“The general feeling is that spying is a side issue and not taken very seriously,” Hatchard said. “There has never been outrage on the same scale as Southampton.”
Hatchard added that when someone is caught spying in Germany, the reaction tends to be more light-hearted, with Werner’s own admission met largely with amusement rather than serious condemnation.
“What is different with Eckert is that official rules have been put in place that he has broken,” Hatchard said, drawing a clear distinction between German norms and the EFL’s specific regulations.
When contextualising his experiences, Eckert said: “I don’t want to say this to excuse anything we have done, I just want to give you context of the football world I grew up in.”
In 2015, German newspaper Kicker reported that Cologne, where Eckert worked as a youth coach, had sent an analyst to spy on Hamburg during a warm-weather training camp in Dubai.
Eckert also worked as an analyst for Germany at the 2014 World Cup, when France manager Didier Deschamps said he halted a private training session after spotting a drone flying overhead.
Eckert’s claims of ignorance have drawn criticism given he previously spent a year and a half working as assistant manager at Barnsley in League One.
Steve Grant, co-host of the Total Saints podcast, called the episode “stupid and ill-conceived” while noting the British tendency to prioritise fair play optics over other forms of gamesmanship.
Hatchard concluded that despite genuine cultural differences between Germany and England, a detail-oriented coach of Eckert’s profile should have considered the consequences before acting.
