New WhatsApp messages have revealed how Southampton orchestrated a spying campaign against their Championship rivals.
Junior members of staff told the independent disciplinary commission how head coach Tonda Eckert had placed them “under extreme pressure” to carry out a task they were clearly uncomfortable with and felt was morally wrong.
The exchanges are detailed in the written reasons of the League Arbitration Panel, appointed to hear Southampton’s appeal against being expelled from the Championship play-offs and deducted four points from next season.
Saints had pleaded guilty to charges of spying on Oxford United and Ipswich Town in the regular season, and then Middlesbrough before the play-off semi-final.
In the written reasons of the punishment, Southampton’s conduct was described as “contrived and determined plan from the top down” which head coach Eckert had approved.
Now WhatsApp messages revealed in the League Arbitration Panel’s report detail how the plan was orchestrated
The messages detail how:
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A junior analyst sent to observe Oxford United train before their December fixture with Southampton sent a message to colleagues saying, “I didn’t really have an option and wasn’t provided an opportunity to say no. I was an intern and was doing what I was told.”
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When he sent details from that session back to his boss, he received a WhatsApp reading, “You legend. Manager loved it.”
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Upon being asked to carry out a second spying mission on Ipswich he expressed concern but was told, “the boss is adamant that someone needs to go”.
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That upon being caught, another analyst at the club sent a message to his colleague saying: “I said all along I was never happy about it all & it wasn’t right but no one listened to me!”
The document goes on to explain how the intern was caught by staff at Middlesbrough as he spied on their training session in the build-up to their play-off semi-final in May.
It details how he discovered Southampton had been accused of spying while he was still on a train from Middlesborough back to Southampton.
And it reveals how Southampton then attempted to delete images of the intern from the internet.
