It has emerged that Southampton were able to predict Ipswich Town’s starting line-up for last season’s crunch Championship clash between the two sides after they were sent video footage from a training session.
The revelation was detailed in the written reasons given by the League Arbitration Panel which was appointed to hear Southampton’s appeal against being thrown out of the Championship play-offs for spying on opponents – including Ipswich.
Ipswich were training at non-league side Eastleigh on the day of the game on April 28 which was seen as a shootout for second place, with both teams fighting for automatic promotion to the Premier League.
It was revealed that someone present at Eastleigh that day recorded the entire training session – enabling Southampton to “predict the exact Ipswich team for the fixture.”
In his evidence presented to the panel, Saints boss Tonda Eckert claimed that someone from Eastleigh had provided the footage and he hadn’t known about it until a couple of hours before kick-off.
However, an intern said he was asked to travel to Eastleigh to spy on the session after being told “the boss is adamant that someone needs to go”.
Southampton were expelled from the Championship play-offs after admitting three counts of spying on opposition training sessions. Credit: ITV Meridian
When he refused, another analyst went instead on the proviso that he was provided with an Eastleigh kit and ‘a legend’ – an excuse for why he was there in the event he was challenged by Ipswich staff.
It’s not clear who filmed the footage, but the commission heard that Eastleigh and Southampton shared “a close working relationship.”
Newly-released WhatsApp messages revealed in the report detailed exactly how Southampton orchestrated their spying missions which also saw Oxford United and Middlesbrough targeted.
The document stated that junior staff felt “pressurised to do the observations that Mr Eckert and the senior coaches wished them to do”.
On one occasion, an intern was sent to spy on Oxford in order to find out what formation their caretaker manager Craig Short was likely to play.
When he reported back his findings, he received a message saying: “You legend. Manager loved it.”
Southampton had pleaded guilty to charges of spying on all three of their Championship rivals, but argued the punishment of being kicked out of the play-offs, as well as being deducted four points for next season, didn’t fit the crime.
However, the League Arbitration Panel found that it was “clear beyond any doubt that Southampton intended to obtain a sporting advantage over their league rivals by cheating”.
In a statement released on Monday, Southampton said that they “accepted that the club breached the relevant regulations” and would be “reviewing its internal processes as a result”.
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