Spygate: Southampton owner Dragan Solak will not sack head coach Tonda Eckert

In a wide-ranging interview, Solak insisted he was unaware of the espionage plot, explaining that he only learned of it when the news broke on social media last month.

“I actually found out from X. I sent a message: ‘What the hell is this?’

“Even the people I spoke to at the highest level of the club had no idea what was going on. They genuinely thought it was a joke.”

Describing Southampton’s penalty as “ridiculous”, Solak attempted to downplay the seriousness of the club’s cheating.

“Yes, we tried to obtain information that is not legally permitted,” he said. “Okay, what you do with that information and how you use it in the field is one thing. But what is the direct impact of this information on the field?

“On the other hand, in almost every game we see players diving, trying to get a penalty or a red card. It’s not fair. And it’s very simple to call it cheating because they know what they’re doing, it has a much, much more direct impact on the game and the result than what we do.”

“I’m not saying what we did was right. I agree with the league that they wanted to stop it completely. I just think they didn’t treat every offense equally.”

When asked how he felt about club personnel other than Eckert being aware of the espionage, Solak said: “All this was happening in the environment of our analysts.

“I think we have a few friends who are foreign analysts, so you could say they probably had no idea that this was against the rules.

“And we probably have five or six British analysts. How come they either didn’t know or didn’t tell? I don’t know. But it will be additional soul-searching for us… I’m certainly very focused on making sure we start to understand this because that’s the only way this will never happen again.”