The Football Association announced its decision concerning Tonda Eckert after the German admitted misconduct charges relating to the observation of opponents’ training sessions.
The club admitted using junior staff to spy on a training session held by play-off opponents Middlesbrough in May, and on sessions at Ipswich and Oxford earlier in the season.
Southampton subsequently beat Boro in their clash in May, and advanced to the final, but were expelled from the Championship play-off final and docked four points this term.
However, Eckert escaped an immediate ban and is able to continue his role against rivals Portsmouth this Sunday and beyond.
A statement from the governing body read: “The suspended sanction will come into effect in the event he is found to have committed a breach of Rules or Regulations by requesting, authorising, taking, or using information from any observation of the training of another club, in whatever guise that observation may take.”
The punishment is likely to draw strong opinions from across the game, with Southampton saying in a statement “this now brings a conclusion to a regrettable period of our history”.
The club also claimed that: “measures have been put in place to ensure that such errors in judgement never happen again at our club.”
‘A positive experience’
Rule E3.1 of the FA code states a “participant shall at all times act in the best interests of the game” and not in “any manner which is improper or brings the game into disrepute, or uses any one, or a combination of violent conduct, serious foul play, threatening, abusive, indecent, or insulting words or behaviour”.
The English Football League Championship (EFL) also carried out its own investigation that labelled Southampton “deplorable” for pressuring an intern to spy on their rivals.
The EFL only had the power to charge clubs, not individuals, during the probe.
Reacting to Wednesday’s news, Southampton owner Dragan Solak described the FA process as “a positive experience,” but said “the same cannot be said for the EFL process”.
More from Sky News:
£6.7bn deal announced to buy Boots’ 1,800 UK and Ireland stores
Royal Mail to cut up to 2,500 jobs
In June, Eckert posted an apology video in which he took responsibility for “everything that has happened”.
“For everything that has happened, I do want to apologise and I hold my hand up because as head coach I am responsible,” he said.
“I am responsible for everything that has happened at this football club.”
He added that spying was common in other countries, though it did not “excuse anything that we have done”.
