Phil Hay says what he ‘still can’t believe’ about Leeds-Derby spygate scandal over a year later
The Athletic’s Phil Hay is still struggling to believe that Leeds United were hit with a £200,000 fine after the spygate scandal of last season.
In January 2019, a Leeds intern was caught acting suspiciously outside of Derby’s training ground and was given a talking to by the local police.
It turned out that the intern was in fact sent by Marcelo Bielsa to spy on Derby’s training session and Bielsa ended up admitting that he had done it ahead of every Championship match up until that point.
Bielsa’s spy tactics led to a fierce debate about whether the Argentine was simply taking the initiative or using an under-hand approach to get an advantage over rivals.
In the end, the EFL adopted a new rule to prevent spying and Leeds were fined a six-figure sum, which was paid for personally by Bielsa.
Hay, who was worked for the Yorkshire Evening Post during the spygate scandal, still thinks that fine was way too harsh.
Writing on his personal Twitter account, he said: “The way I saw it, Bielsa shouldn’t have done what he did but I still can’t believe it resulted in a £200k fine. I felt the club’s apology and a rule change was enough. And some of the criticism of him was well over the top.”
We have to agree with Hay on this.
Bielsa should not have been sending people out to spy on other teams’ training sessions but that is something he was allowed to do during his time managing in South America.
No one told him he couldn’t, so why shouldn’t he?
But yes, the fine was way over the top and the EFL really didn’t need to do that.
In other Leeds United news, this 17-year-old is future captain material.