Category: Football (Soccer)

• 33-year-old German could be hit with one-year ban

• South-coast club denied chance to win promotion

Southampton’s manager, Tonda Eckert, is facing the possibility of a lengthy suspension from all football activity in England, and perhaps beyond, after being charged with three counts of misconduct by the Football Association.

All three relate to the ‘Spygate’ scandal and involve breaching FA rules during covert missions to illicitly observe Championship training sessions involving Middlesbrough, Ipswich and Oxford last season. The 33-year-old has until Tuesday to respond to the charges and may well fear the precedent set by Fifa when it banned Bev Priestman, the English-born former Canada women’s head coach and assistant England women coach, from football worldwide for 12 months. In 2024 Priestman, then in charge of Canada, was found to have authorised a spying mission involving the use of a drone to monitor New Zealand’s training during the Paris Olympics.

• Captain says promotion would bring ‘the most happiness’

• He visited largest shareholder Daniel Křetínský in Prague

Jarrod Bowen has said he intends to remain with West Ham after the club’s relegation to the Championship. The forward has attracted interest from Premier League teams but has spelled out his desire to stay after a summer during which he travelled to Prague for talks with the largest shareholder, Daniel Křetínský.

“I feel like we’re moving in the right direction as a club,” Bowen told West Ham’s media channels. “There’s a lot of thinking time over the summer and a lot of things that go in your head. But I look in years and years to come of when I retire, what’s going to bring me the most happiness. For me now that’s getting this club back into the Premier League.”

• FA could follow Fifa precedent with 12-month suspension

• Manager to face media on Saturday in pre-season friendly

The future of Southampton’s manager, Tonda Eckert, remains shrouded in uncertainty as he waits to learn the outcome of a lengthy and detailed Football Association investigation into last season’s spygate scandal.

In May the English Football League expelled Southampton from the Championship playoff final against Hull after finding that a club intern engaged as a first-team analyst had spied on a key Middlesbrough training session before the semi-final first leg at the Riverside.

• League One: Notts Co v Leicester, Barnsley v Bromley

• York return to League Two with visit of Bristol Rovers

Wolves will launch the Championship season at home to Blackburn, while West Ham head to Burnley in a meeting of the other two relegated sides in one of the more eye-catching fixtures on the opening weekend.

The EFL fixture list was released on Thursday and Wolves will play their first Championship fixture since 2018 under their new head coach, César Peixoto, at Molineux at 8pm on Friday 14 August, with the former West Brom manager Tony Mowbray back for a second spell in charge of Blackburn.