Katharina Liebherr paid tribute to her late father Markus as she unveiled a lasting tribute to the man who saved Saints.

The Swiss billionaire bought Saints out of administration in 2009, but died little over a year later.

However, his legacy has lived on at the club and his ultimate dream, of having a state of the art training facility for a Saints side in the Premier League, has come to fruition.

Katharina was on hand to officially unveil the new Staplewood, on which £39m will eventually be spent, and said: “I am honoured to be here today.

“On behalf of my father and myself I want to say thank you to everybody who was involved in the building of this football facility.

“It was a lot of work and we all did a very good job as we can see here.

“The opening of this building would mean a lot to my father as this is a strong step towards a sustainable future.”

Katharina also presented chairman Ralph Krueger with the red and white striped scarf her father wore to all Saints games.

She added: “This is the lucky scarf of my father which he wore to every game.

“Today is the perfect day to hand this over to the club and may it bring luck to us.”

Krueger said at the unveiling ceremony: “We are Southampton.

“We don't just buy success, we breed it. We don't take shortcuts, we earn it every second of every day.

“We are the Saints.

“It's not just a name, it's who we are.

“With the Markus Liebherr Pavilion at our core, we march on.”

Krueger added of Markus: “He would have never have put his name on a building and was a very humble man.

“People speak about him being a big teddy bear, his warmth and a lovely man.

“The last thing he would have wanted is to put his name on a building, but I know he is smiling down on us today as we put his name on this building."