Image source, Dan Kerins

The club has released a statement following the announcement by the FA. It reads:

Southampton Football Club welcomes the outcome of the FA hearing into the events at the end of last season.

We hope this now brings a conclusion to a regrettable period of our history and measures have been put in place to ensure that such errors in judgement never happen again at our club.

We want to take this opportunity to thank the supporters for their unconditional backing throughout this process. Our fan base is unmatched, and we are excited to move forward together towards a bright future.

Owner Dragan Solak said: “I’m pleased that the independent panel has come to a decision and that we have an outcome. We have already suffered enough, and we appreciate the panel’s recognition of that.

“We are confident the manager has learned from this matter, and a suspended sentence allows him to continue in his role. I firmly believe that Tonda is one of Europe’s most exciting young coaches, and with this distraction removed, I am confident he can lead the team to a successful season. I’d like to thank our fans for standing by us and showing the team so much support during a time when we have needed them more than ever.

“The FA process has been a positive experience. Tonda has been given the opportunity to be open and honest with the panel, and the panel has been able to see that he is simply a good person who made poor decisions. The same cannot be said for the EFL process, and the way they have subsequently treated us is not something we will forget. However, now is the time to look forward to what I believe will be a great future for our club.”

Image source, Other

It was the morning of Thursday, 7 May.

Middlesbrough were at their Rockliffe Park training base preparing for the play-off against Southampton 48 hours later.

The spy, Southampton analyst intern William Salt, is said to have parked at the golf club, then walked a couple of hundred yards down a road which leads to a raised area of ground.

Sources told the BBC that the accused simply stood pointing his mobile at the training session, while wearing in-ear headphones.

Middlesbrough staff believe he may have been live-streaming the session via a video call.

A member of Middlesbrough's staff approached, say BBC sources, but the person would not identify himself. Then, he quickly deleted some content off his phone before running off into the golf club.

He jogged into the toilets, changed his clothes and hurriedly left the site.

Middlesbrough's photographer took photos and matched him to a photo on the Southampton website. One of those pictures was subsequently made public last week.

Boro were furious and quickly reported it to the EFL.

Image source, Getty Images

Southampton head coach Tonda Eckert has been given a six week ban, suspended until the end of next season by the Football Association for his role in the Spygate scandal.

The German had been awaiting the outcome of last month's FA disciplinary hearing after being charged with three breaches of FA rule relating to misconduct in July.

An EFL independent commission had ruled at the time that Eckert authorised a "contrived and determined plan" to spy on Oxford United, Ipswich Town and then Middlesbrough before last season's Championship play-off semi-final.

Southampton were expelled from the play-off final and docked four points after admitting to have spied on the three clubs.

Eckert apologised publicly for his actions in June and told BBC Sport last week that he had "asked for forgiveness for what I've done".

Eckert was Southampton's under-21s head coach before taking over the first team on an interim basis when Will Still was sacked last November before being appointed their permanent boss on a contract until 2027.