Southampton Spygate: Is spying common in Germany, says Tonda Eckert?

“I don’t mean to excuse anything we did, just to give you the context of the world of football I grew up in,” Eckert said of his previous scouting experience in Germany and Italy, where he worked as assistant manager to Patrick Vieira at Genoa.

Of course, the Southampton scandal isn’t the first espionage case in which Eckert worked for groups, although the extent of his involvement in those earlier cases remains unclear.

In the year In 2015, German newspaper Kicker reported that Cologne – where Eckert was working as a youth coach – sent an analyst to Hamburg for a warm-weather training camp in Dubai.

And suspicion fell on Germany at the 2014 World Cup when France manager Didier Deschamps said he had to stop personal training because the drone was flying overhead. Eckert worked as an analyst for the team.

“We don’t want any interference in our privacy, but it’s hard to fight these days,” Deschamps said.

It’s difficult to know how much espionage was part of Eckert’s development because he hasn’t given any media interviews since the scandal broke.

He was busted for breaching an EFL rule that prohibits watching opponents train within 72 hours of a game. If the employee had left days earlier, as Eckert originally asked, they would have escaped sanctions on a technicality.

“The whole thing was stupid and thoughtless,” said Steve Grant, co-host of the Total Saints podcast.

“But it’s very British to keep our gems on the concept of fair play, while we’re happy to see our centre-forward go deep into the penalty area.”

Eckert’s claim that he was unaware of EFL rules has also come in for criticism, as he had previously been assistant manager at Barnsley in League One for a year and a half.

“There is definitely a cultural difference between Germany and England,” Hatchard added.

“But for someone who is so detail-oriented in coaching, I’m surprised that Eckert didn’t take the time to think, ‘No, I know this happens a lot in Germany, but can I really do it here?’

“Once you’re the main guy, it’s unforgivable not to think about the gravity of what he’s doing, how it’s going to be known and what the consequences might be.”