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Leeds United boss Marcelo Bielsa has admitting to sending an employee to spy on Derby County’s training ground without the knowledge of the club,
BREAKING: @LUFC coach Marcelo Bielsa admits sending a club employee to spy on @dcfcofficial's training session ahead of tonight's game and "accepts all responsibility". #SSN pic.twitter.com/dxtZWsGmW8
— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) January 11, 2019
Bielsa seemed more remorseful that he had upset his counterpart at Derby County, Frank Lampard, than potentially breaking any rule, which he denied he had done.
Bielsa: "Without trying to find any form of justification, I have been using this practice since the [2002] World Cup qualifications with Argentina."
— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) January 11, 2019
Bielsa claimed that he’d been doing this since qualifying for the World Cup with Argentina in 2002. It didn’t seem very shocking to Mauricio Pochettino, who played for Bielsa at Newell’s Old Boys. Pochettino insisted that it was common in Argentina, saying:
It’s nothing wrong with finding information about what the opponent is doing.
30 years ago it happened in Argentina. Not only Marcelo, all the managers. When I was 17, 18, 19-year-old all the managers like [Carlos] Bilardo or many, many others used to send people to watch training sessions. Here it’s a bit weird, but it happened in Argentina.
This may not be the end of the issue as far as the FA or the EFL is concerned, but hopefully Lampard and Bielsa can bury the hatchet in time for today’s game.