EFL Playoffs 25/26 (Eckhert gets 6 week ban suspended until end of next season - p73)

shirty5 said:

Tonda Eckert is free to continue as Southampton manager after being given a suspended ban for his role in the Spygate scandal.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cqj9knmvm2ryo

That is ridiculously light

eastterrace6168 said:

EFL cowards, taking the easy way out, and basically giving carte Blanche for anyone to do exactly the same, why should the club suffer but not the instigator.. utter farce 

Apart from banning them from the Play Offs back in May and denying them a place in the Premier League for this season.

Maybe they think that was enough punishment as the Head Coach was their employee. They could have easily binned him off back in May but Southampton choose to stick with him 

eastterrace6168 said:

FA cowards, taking the easy way out, and basically giving carte Blanche for anyone to do exactly the same, why should the club suffer but not the instigator.. utter farce 

Worth noting this is the FA not the EFL

That'll learn him.

From the BBC article:

"The FA did not charge Leeds United's former manager Marcelo Bielsa after the club were found guilty of spying on Derby in 2019, instead issuing a formal warning.

The EFL fined Leeds £200,000 - which Bielsa said he paid - and introduced a rule prohibiting any club from observing a rival's training session within 72 hours of a match between them."

So you're good to spy if it's more than 3 days before a match?

Okay.

eastterrace6168 said:

shirty5 said:

eastterrace6168 said:

EFL cowards, taking the easy way out, and basically giving carte Blanche for anyone to do exactly the same, why should the club suffer but not the instigator.. utter farce 

Apart from banning them from the Play Offs back in May and denying them a place in the Premier League for this season.

Maybe they think that was enough punishment as the Head Coach was their employee. They could have easily binned him off back in May but Southampton choose to stick with him 

Exactly my point, Eckert gets off basically Scott free, I am surprised that Southampton haven’t binned him off already for what he’s caused the club with his decision,,,🤷‍♂️

Or possibly in it with him with what went on?

They have looked at the job he did and want to keep him.  Either way, it stinks.

I'm an outlier on this as any analyst or Saint's scout who had watched Charlton matches at the Valley could see we had weaknesses in the wing back positions which any team who played on the front foot from the 1st whistle could exploit.

I watched on TV and they just ran though Charlton in midfield and down the flanks.
It was embarrassing from Charlton against a skilled side.

If I saw there was going to be a big problem with Apter as a RWB even in games when Ramsey covered him, you would assume Professional Southampton analysts would as well? Plus we had issues in the LWB as Josh Edwards was already injured.

It was so pathetic and blatant what the intern did, but it was more a comedy than a spy caper.
Losing out in the final where they weren't guaranteed to win but they were strong favourites against Hull who looked poor against CAFC just a few games before.

If a football savvy man and his dog walked around the perimeter of a training ground you wouldn't even have to film it if the guy could memorize a different type of free kick being tried out or clocking who may not be fit and taking part.

I can understand Charlton fans being outraged with Sinner's fans giving it large to Nathan but they are a top team and Eckert may be a weird dude and a knob but he is also a good coach.

What Man City and Chelsea did over many years was on a different industrial scale and totally undermined what other club had to do to abide by the rules with the likes of Newcastle selling Anderson and Man United letting Mctominay go with their ex academy guys leaving.

lordromford said:

guinnessaddick said:

Southampton as a club have  had a punishment worthy of the offence, he’s got away with it lightly considering it was him who was the main culprit.

Still believe they were at it all season, and not just the ones they confessed to, all of which they didn’t win.

I’m still of the mind that it was far more commonplace than we are being told. 

I can’t for a moment believe Southampton only did it three times, but then I suspect a lot of teams were doing it too, and this is why nobody other than three clubs made a complaint. 

Why would anyone make a complaint about this if there’s a chance another club will react by saying “Yeah, but you did it too, and here’s the evidence.”

Yes, I think you're right.
How about ex players who are out of the 1st team and hardly getting any minutes chatting to ex team mates of clubs who their present club are about to play.

The football world is full of gossip and players whether deliberately or by accident saying our star striker is missing this week but the Manager is keeping it quiet so the Opposition can't train for the little whippet up front rather than the giant striker.
That does sound more like the former rather than the latter!

Just looked at the BBC page on this and in comments a palace fans pops up and if you go by the likes has the most agreed with viewpoint that we should all move on as everyone's been punished now. 
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cqj9knmvm2ryo

I don't understand. He hasn't been punished. It's suspended anyway. He orchestrated the cheating, he said he didn't know you can't do that in this country yet sent somebody who isn't much of a spy in a cloak and dagger way to gain information, knowing full well it isn't just frowned upon. I thought he should be banned for a year at least. This "punishment" is not worth the paper it's written on. Either him or others will risk it again. 

Seems a very light punishment for the man who seemingly coordinated the cheating. 

Should have been a years ban, 6 months suspended

Swisdom said:

ridiculously lenient there.  They were clearly at it more often, hence their stratospheric rise, and they lied and said "it was only a few times and we lost anyway" was for this very reason - to get the leniency.  What happened to the intern being pressured into doing this?

Just got to hope this isn't setting the bar for Man City's punishment announcement

If Southampton had any balls they would have sacked Eckhert but instead they will be patting him on the back and cracking on this year with their promotion push.  If this was our manager would you forgive and forget?

Absolute bottle job from the FA and as for the £28k fine - that's just laughable to a guy probably earning that in a week

The word 'hence' is doing some frankly ludicrous heavy lifting here 

Personally i think the punishment of being kicked out of the play offs was enough. They were the form team and i'm confident with a second leg at home and then Hull in the final that they'd have gone up. As a result they've missed out on 150m as well as losing Charles and Harwood-Bellis to PL clubs.

I don't think he should've been given a lengthy ban, which would've likely meant losing his job as well but i am pretty surprised the FA didn't fine him more though. 28k is nothing.

Swisdom said:

ridiculously lenient there.  They were clearly at it more often, hence their stratospheric rise, and they lied and said "it was only a few times and we lost anyway" was for this very reason - to get the leniency.  What happened to the intern being pressured into doing this?

Just got to hope this isn't setting the bar for Man City's punishment announcement

If Southampton had any balls they would have sacked Eckhert but instead they will be patting him on the back and cracking on this year with their promotion push.  If this was our manager would you forgive and forget?

Absolute bottle job from the FA and as for the £28k fine - that's just laughable to a guy probably earning that in a week

Its not the right answer ethically, but if our manager had turned us around from being near the bottom, gone on a huge winning run whilst playing attractive football I would probably turn a blind eye to the indiscretions as I would be hopeful for promotion with him in charge.  Sack him and you may end up with a Mickey Apples manager. 

Heard from a vaguely ITK source that Eckert took the heat for calls he didn't make - do wonder if the overall treatment means the FA know similar