在“间谍门”事件最紧张的时刻，一名米德尔斯堡球迷正用双筒望远镜观察比赛——当时正值对阵南安普顿的附加赛半决赛首回合比赛前。
A Middlesbrough fan with a pair of binoculars at the height of Spygate – before the first leg of the playoff semi-final against Southampton.
这一裁决的出炉历经漫长。南安普顿主教练在圣玛丽球场重新赢得了球迷的心：“Tonda，你作弊了吗？”这个简单而犀利的问题，直指整个夏天困扰着英格兰足总（FA）的核心问题。提出这一问题的是《北方回声报》的Dominic Shaw。此前，南安普顿在5月举行的英冠附加赛半决赛次回合中击败了米德尔斯堡，而这句话也直接导致Tonda Eckert提前离开了他在圣玛丽球场的新闻发布会。
Verdict has been a long time coming and the Southampton head coach has recaptured hearts and minds at St Mary’s i Tonda, are you a cheat?”That simple, succinct, question cut to the heart of a matter that has vexed the Football Association all summer. It was posed by the Northern Echo’s Dominic Shaw after Southampton overcame Middlesbrough in the second leg of May’s Championship playoff semi‑final and proved the cue for Tonda Eckert to walk out of his press conference at St Mary’s.
尽管南安普顿主教练后来承认曾授权对对手进行监视，但英格兰足球管理机构仍难以决定何种惩罚最适合这一行为——有人视其为恶劣行径，也有人认为并不严重。如今，到了秋季，我们终于等到了英格兰足总的裁决：Eckert被处以六周禁赛（可推迟至2027-28赛季末执行）、罚款2.8万英镑，并受到正式谴责。
Although Southampton’s manager subsequently admitted to authorising spying on opponents, England’s football authorities struggled to decide what punishment best fitted an act some regard as heinous but which others fail to take seriously. Now, in autumn, we finally have an FA verdict, with Eckert given a six-week ban suspended until the end of the 2027-28 season, a £28,000 fine and a reprimand.
尽管这一处罚看似宽大，但有一点显而易见：Eckert整个夏天所经历的“炼狱”经历，足以让任何理智的英格兰本土教练都再也不敢考虑从事间谍活动。
Despite the apparent leniency of the sanction, one thing is clear: Eckert’s summer in purgatory surely dictates no sane England-based coach would contemplate engaging in espionage now.
Eckert或许希望时间能倒流到5月初，从而改写历史。在附加赛半决赛首回合于蒂斯赛德举行前夕，当时担任南安普顿一线队分析师实习生的William Salt，被拍到在一棵树旁鬼鬼祟祟地用iPhone拍摄米德尔斯堡的训练场景。“间谍门”由此爆发。英格兰足球联赛（EFL）成立的独立纪律委员会介入调查，并在南安普顿两回合战胜米德尔斯堡后，将其排除在对阵赫尔城的附加赛决赛之外。该管理机构还裁定，“圣徒”队将在本赛季英冠联赛中扣除四分。
Eckert may wish he could turn back time to early May and rewrite history. On the eve of the playoff semi-final first leg on Teesside, William Salt, then an intern Southampton first-team analyst, was caught lurking awkwardly beside a tree while filming a Middlesbrough training session on his iPhone. Spygate was born and an independent disciplinary commission convened by the Football League (EFL) expelled Southampton from the playoff final against Hull after their win against Boro across two legs. The governing body also decreed the Saints would begin the current Championship season on minus four points.
Tonda Eckert在南安普顿附加赛半决赛首回合比赛期间，站在米德尔斯堡里弗赛德体育场的场边。
Tonda Eckert on the touchline at Middlesbrough’s Riverside Stadium during the first leg of Southampton’s playoff semi-final.
到那时，南安普顿也承认曾监视过牛津联和伊普斯维奇队的训练。讽刺的是，埃克特所在球队在涉及秘密监视的三场比赛中一场未赢——尽管米德尔斯堡最终在总比分上还是被击败了。然而，英格兰足球联赛（EFL）独立的纪律委员会明确表示，他们对一名受临时合同雇佣的年轻员工所承受的压力感到“尤为不齿”。此后，萨尔特被安排在南安普顿青训学院担任分析师，据称工作进展顺利。
By then Southampton had also admitted to spying on Oxford and Ipswich training. There is a certain irony that Eckert’s team won none of the three games – albeit Middlesbrough were ultimately beaten on aggregate – involving covert surveillance. Yet the EFL independent disciplinary commission panel made plain its discomfort regarding the “particularly deplorable” pressure placed on a young worker hired on a temporary contract. Salt has since been given a staff job as an analyst in Southampton’s academy and is reportedly progressing well.
由于EFL有权对俱乐部进行处罚，但在此类案件中无权处罚个人，因此惩罚埃克特的责任落在了英格兰足总（FA）身上。这位33岁的德国人于6月公开道歉，但直到7月底才被FA指控存在不当行为。之后又出现了一段长时间的延误，直到9月24日在温布利球场举行了听证会。
With the EFL empowered to sanction clubs but not individuals in such cases, it was down to the FA to punish Eckert. The 33-year-old German issued a public apology in June but was not charged with misconduct by the FA until late July A further hiatus ensued before a hearing at Wembley on 24 September.
这种非同寻常的延误给了埃克特充足的时间，让他后悔将萨尔特派往米德尔斯堡的训练基地——该基地位于达灵顿以南、豪华的罗克利夫霍尔酒店和高尔夫球场旁。萨尔特的主要任务是查明米德尔斯堡的明星中场、英冠赛季最佳球员海登·哈克尼在受伤后是否已经康复。不幸的是，秘密行动显然并非他的强项。萨尔特很快发现自己被追进了酒店厕所，并意识到用银行卡在罗克利夫霍尔酒店买咖啡并非明智之举。
This extraordinary delay afforded Eckert ample time to regret dispatching Salt to Middlesbrough’s training ground adjacent to the luxury Rockliffe Hall Hotel and golf course just south of Darlington. Salt’s primary mission was to discover whether Hayden Hackney, Middlesbrough’s star midfielder and the Championship player of the season, was fit after injury. Unfortunately, clandestine manoeuvres were evidently not his strong suit. Salt soon found himself being chased into hotel toilets, and realised that using his bank card to buy a coffee at Rockliffe had not been the smartest move.
这笔支付促使人们在南安普顿的网站上搜索了他的名字。他的身份很快被识别出来，这使得米德尔斯堡的老板史蒂夫·吉布森能够就违反EFL反监视规定一事向EFL提出正式投诉。
That payment facilitated a search for his name on Southampton’s website. It was swiftly identified, enabling Steve Gibson, Middlesbrough’s owner, to make a formal complaint to the EFL regarding a breach of its anti-spying regulations.
据了解，直到此时，南安普顿的主教练仍对贝夫·普里斯特曼的先例一无所知。这位加拿大女足前主教练因被认定有组织间谍行为，被国际足联禁止参与一切足球活动一年。在2024年巴黎奥运会期间，她的团队曾使用无人机秘密拍摄新西兰队的一次训练，这位英格兰女足前助理教练为此付出了沉重代价。
It is understood that, until this point, Southampton’s manager remained unaware of the Bev Priestman precedent. The former head coach of Canada Women was banned from all football activity for a year by Fifa after being found guilty of initiating spying. During the 2024 Paris Olympics her staff secretly filmed a New Zealand training session using a drone and the former England women’s assistant manager paid a high price.
目前尚不清楚埃克特此后是否与这位现执教于惠灵顿凤凰的40岁教练有过联系。普里斯特曼此前在原本热情好客的加拿大遭遇了如此极端的敌意，以至于她不得不将家人迁往新西兰。在“间谍门”事件期间，埃克特的妻子当时已身怀六甲，正在柏林为迎接他们的第一个孩子做准备。而留在汉普郡的丈夫则收到了死亡威胁；南安普顿俱乐部为他提供了保护，警方也建议他不要自己开车，并限制活动范围。
It is unclear whether Eckert has since been in touch with the 40-year-old, now in charge of Wellington Phoenix. Priestman met such extreme hostility in previously welcoming Canada that she relocated her family to New Zealand. During ‘Spygate’, Eckert’s wife was heavily pregnant and based in Berlin, preparing for the birth of their first child. Back in Hampshire, her husband received death threats via Southampton supplied the manager with protection while police advised him that driving his own car was unsafe and that he should restrict his movements.
许多人对此极为愤怒，圣玛丽球场的老球迷们意见两极分化：一部分人认为主教练给俱乐部带来了耻辱，应该被解雇；另一部分人则认为，这种被委婉称为“对手训练观察”的行为在欧洲各地司空见惯，而且大多并未受到惩罚。后者还提到，七年前，利兹联当时的主教练马塞洛·贝尔萨曾派一名分析师监视德比郡的一次训练，结果俱乐部被罚款20万英镑。当时执教于德比郡的弗兰克·兰帕德在发现对方爬上一棵树后提出了抗议。
Plenty of people were extremely angry, with St Mary’s regulars polarised between those who believed the manager had shamed their club and should be sacked, and others who reflected that what is euphemistically called “training observation” of opponents is commonplace and largely unpunished across tracts of Europe. The second camp remembered that, seven years ago, Leeds were fined £200,000 after the club’s then manager, Marcelo Bielsa, sent an analyst to monitor a Derby training session. Frank Lampard, then in charge of Derby, complained after spotting him perched up a tree.
在那起事件之后，英格兰足球联赛（EFL）显著收紧了有关间谍行为的规则。尽管如此，埃克特的支持者声称，鉴于他上赛季初只是南安普顿U21队教练，直到11月威尔·斯蒂尔被解雇后才接任主教练，因此他可能错过了EFL每年为教练举办的夏季规则更新课程。
After that incident the EFL tightened its regulations regarding espionage appreciably. Nonetheless, Eckert’s advocates claim that, given he started last season as Southampton’s under-21s coach and became the manager after Will Still’s sacking in November he had missed the EFL’s annual managerial summer rules refresher course.
“如果我说这个夏天过得轻松，那我就是撒谎，”埃克特上个月说道。
‘I would lie if I said this summer’s been easy,’ Eckert said last month.
埃克特最初以德国国家队分析师的身份开启职业生涯，之后先后执教过科隆、萨尔茨堡红牛、莱比锡红牛、拜仁慕尼黑、巴恩斯利和热那亚。最近当他对记者说，英足总联赛（EFL）手册是自己夏季床头常备读物时，他其实只是半开玩笑。他还与加雷斯·南盖特取得了联系，并拜访了这位前英格兰队及米德尔斯堡队的主教练，两人深入探讨了英格兰足球文化及其对“间谍门”事件零容忍的态度。
Eckert, who began his career as a Germany national team analyst before moving into coaching at Cologne, RB Salzburg, RB Leipzig, Bayern Munich, Barnsley and Genoa, was only half-joking when he recently told reporters that the EFL handbook was his staple bedside summer reading. He also made contact with Gareth Southgate and visited the former England and Middlesbrough, manager, with the pair discussing English football culture and its zero tolerance for spycraft at length.
“如果我说今年夏天过得轻松，那我就是撒谎，”埃克特上个月表示，“我已经向英格兰足总请求原谅了。”不过，南安普顿的董事会始终坚定地支持他，并明确表示，尽管部分球员因“间谍门”事件感到被背叛，更衣室内存在强烈敌意，他们也没有解雇他的打算。
“I would lie if I said this summer’s been easy,” said Eckert last month. “I’ve asked the FA for forgiveness.”He has had unwavering support from Southampton’s board who made it clear they had no desire to sack him in the face of considerable dressing room hostility on the part offrom players who felt betrayed by ‘Spygate’.
自从上赛季曾带领球队几乎成功升级的教练重新赢得了主力队球员的心之后，南安普顿在英冠联赛前八场比赛中取得了四胜两平的成绩。下一场较量将在周日进行，届时他们将客场对阵朴茨茅斯。南海岸德比向来紧张激烈，但埃克特此次得以留任，或许会让他以罕见放松的姿态出现在技术区内。
With first-team hearts and minds since seemingly recaptured by the coach who led them so close to promotion last season, Southampton have won four and drawn two of their opening eight Championship games. Next up on Sunday is the visit of Portsmouth. South-coast derbies are invariably tense but Eckert’s reprieve may ensure he cuts an unusually relaxed figure in the technical area.