The English Football Association announced on Wednesday that it has charged Tonda Eikert, the manager of Southampton, in a spying scandal.

This scandal led to the team's exclusion from the playoff final for the English Premier League.

Southampton was excluded from the final, described as 'the most expensive in football', because winning means promotion to the Premier League, guaranteeing future financial returns estimated at about £200 million ($268.1 million), after admitting to monitoring opponents' training less than 72 hours before matches.

Eikert apologized on Southampton's social media accounts, saying that watching training sessions was a common practice in other leagues he had worked in.