Southampton manager Tonda Eckert will keep his job despite helping orchestrate the Spygate controversy that cost the club a chance of promotion to the Premier League, owner Dragan Solak says.
Southampton were expelled from the second-tier Championship play-offs last month after admitting to repeatedly spying on opponents' training sessions, and were given a four-point deduction for next season.
In its written reasons published on Monday, an arbitration panel laid bare the influence of Eckert in the scandal, saying it was "a contrived and determined plan from top down to gain a competitive advantage" and that analysts who carried out the unauthorised filming "felt pressurised to do the observations that Mr Eckert and the senior coaches wished them to do".
However, Solak said in a video message to fans published on Tuesday that the club believed Eckert "is the man to take us forward".
