Whatever your views on whether Southampton FC & Tonda Eckert's guilt in the Spygate situation, it cannot be argued that the EFL acted with uneasy haste in the original days after the story broke, now the FA are doing exactly the opposite.

These days Mathew Le Tissier is not only a Saints legend, but also an advisor to the board at St Mary's.

footballleagueworld.co.uk have reported that the man Southampton fans called Le God has spoken about the frustrating wait for the Football Association to deliver their verdict.

Southampton legend and now advisor to the board at St Mary's, Matt Le Tissier, has branded the ongoing FA hearing over Tonda Eckert's charges of misconduct "frustrating", as Saints wait for the decision over what level of punishment he'll be given.

Eckert was understood to have attended an FA hearing last Thursday, but even that is unclear, not just whether it happened, but where it took place and who attended, it was hoped that the outcome of his charges relating to the so called Spygate, would be dealt with at that hearing or at least shortly afterwards, to finally put to bed almost 5 months of managerial uncertainty hanging over both Eckert & Southampton.

"Obviously it’s been quite frustrating," Le Tissier said on Eckert's hearing. "Not knowing what’s going to happen to your manager is never great, but despite that, we’ve been pretty strong at home. We should know very shortly what the verdict is on Tonda."

Le Tissier has hit the nail right on the head, whatever anyone's viewpoint on the extent of Eckert's guilt, the truth is that the FA should have dealt with this a long time ago, they had over 19 weeks since Saints were kicked out of the play off final in May by the EFL, a verdict reached with unacceptable haste, to be able to deal with the case.

Yet after being left hanging in suspense by the FA for so long when the hearing has taken place, almost a week later we have heard nothing from either side, whether a verdict has been reached, whether an appeal has been launched and in general just what is happening.

The club is saying nothing, the FA is saying nothing and everything else is just speculation.

But whatever the situation, it is clearly not ethical to leave a man in Tonda Eckert unsure where his career will be for so long and Southampton FC left dangling as to whether their manager can continue.

The situation should not have been left to fester for so long, it could have and should have been dealt with within the 6 week period leading up to the start of June when the players were returning for pre season training.

That would have left Saints to make whatever decisions & preparations were needed for the coming season and given them a clear month to do so before the start of the season.

Now the FA have dragged this into a position where by the time the club plays it's next game, the home fixture against Portsmouth, it will be two months into the season.

This further delay where it seems at least a week will elapse before a verdict is announced, beggars the question that a lot more is happening behind the scenes, that something legal is taking place and even the FA's legality of charging Eckert with three breaches of Rule E3.1 relating to misconduct, for acting improperly and/or bringing the game into disrepute.

Given that spying on another club is perfectly legal for every club under the FA's jurisdiction other than the 3 divisions of the EFL and even then it is only an offence if it is done less than 72hours before the game takes place.

I would suggest the club are arguing that there have been no FA rules broken, only EFL regulations and that has been dealt with by the EFL.

That being the case I would think that the FA would still be keen to be seen doing "right thing" so to speak and meting out some sort of punishment.

The situation is now complicated further by the fact that Manchester City have been found guilty by the Premier League under their own Financial Fair Play rules, will the FA intervene in that one and charge both Manchester City & various individuals within the club under Rule E.3.1 or similar.

Indeed are City's owners not unfit & improper persons to own a football club.

These are landmark times if football both in England but Worldwide and it is just our luck to be caught up in them as the biggest footballing scandal for decades breaks.

Via Reuters