In a wide-ranging interview, Solak insisted that he was unaware of the espionage plot, revealing that he only became aware of it when the news broke on social media last month.
“I actually learned from X. I sent a message: ‘What is this?’
“Even people I spoke to at the highest levels of the club had no idea what was going on. They really thought it was a joke.”
Solak tried to downplay the seriousness of the club’s cheating, calling the punishment received by Southampton “ridiculous”.
“Yes, we tried to obtain information that is not legally permitted,” he said. “Well, what you do with this information and how you use it on the pitch is a different thing. And what is the direct impact of this information on the pitch?
“On the other hand, we can see in almost every game, players diving, basically trying to get a penalty or get a red card. It’s not fair. And it’s very easy to call it cheating because they know what they are doing, it has a direct impact on the game and the result more than anything we did.
“I’m not saying what we did is right. I agree with the league that they want to stop it forever. I just think they’re not treating every offense equally.”
Asked how he felt about club staff other than Eckert knowing about the spying, Solak said, “This whole thing was happening in our analysts’ environment.
“I think we have some people who are foreign analysts, so for them you could probably say they had no idea it was against the rules.
“And then we have maybe five or six British analysts. They either didn’t know or they didn’t tell how? I don’t know. But it’s something that will cause additional soul-searching for us… I’m certainly very focused on making sure we understand it because that’s the only way this will never happen again.”
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