Members of Daniel Peretz’s soccer team, Southampton, told an independent disciplinary committee that coach Tonda Ackert exerted "extreme pressure" on them to carry out a task they felt uncomfortable with and believed was unethical, the BBC reported, as new details emerged regarding the serious espionage scandal that led to the team's disqualification just before the Championship playoff final.
Southampton admitted to spying on Oxford United and Ipswich Town training sessions during the regular season, and later on Middlesbrough ahead of the playoff semifinals. The club was expelled from the playoffs, and four points were deducted from their tally for the following season.
The disciplinary reasoning described the club’s conduct as a "calculated and determined top-down plan" approved by coach Ackert. Now, WhatsApp messages revealed in the arbitration committee report detail how the plan was executed in practice.
Among other things, one analyst sent to observe an Oxford United training session before Southampton’s December match wrote to colleagues: "I didn’t really have a choice and wasn’t given an opportunity to refuse. I was an intern and did what I was told."
After passing the information collected in the field to his supervisor, he received a WhatsApp message stating, "You are a legend. The coach loved it."
Intern pressured to continue spying despite concerns
When asked to carry out another spying task against Ipswich, he expressed concern but was told that "the boss insists someone has to go."
After the scandal was exposed, another club analyst sent a message to a colleague: "I kept saying I was never happy with all this and that it wasn’t right, but nobody listened to me!"
It was also noted that he discovered Southampton had been accused of spying while still on the train from Middlesbrough back to Southampton.
Additionally, it was revealed that after the affair broke, his team attempted to remove from the internet photos showing him as an intern.