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Simon Jordan defends Leeds boss Marcelo Bielsa over Fair Play award win
Simon Jordan after the Leeds United boss was awarded the FIFA Fair Play award, and insisted that the Spygate saga was blown out of proportion.
Bielsa’s first season at Elland Road became a talking point once again last month when football’s governing body announced the award for the Whites heꩵad coach.
The award was given ﷽after Bielsa instructed his players to allow Aston Villa to score a goal uncontested after United had taken the lead in controversial circumstances in their c𝔉lash.
Some felt that Leeds should not have wo📖n the award after they were fined earlier in the campaign for send🦩ing a member of staff to Derby’s training ground to watch a session ahead of their fixture.
Bu💮t Jordan not only defended the decision to give Bielsa the award, but he also suggested that he had plenty of sympathy for the Leeds boss for the uproaওr that emerged from Spygate.
“You can ridicule it𒈔, but the criteria was to look at an individual instance, not to look what he’s done previously,” .
“The Spygate scenario, if it was an English manager who was doing it, an English manager who was brought up on the traditions of t༒his game and the eth꧟ics and the code of conduct and whatever else [it would be wrong]. For crying out loud, how people get up in arms about things when this game is [filled] with people behaving in a fashion which is inappropriate.
“But I look at it and say this is a guy who comes from a background that perhaps doesn’t understand the methodology over here and has used it everywhere else. So I t𝓀hink it was blown out of proportion.”
TBR’s View
Leeds fans will point out that no rules were broken by Bielsa’s actions. And the attitudes and reactions of many certainly angered the Elland Road faithful. Pundits appeared determined to sugge🦂st a more extreme punishment as the days went on, seemingly ౠto keep the story in the limelight.
And the size of the fine seemed completely disproportionate to other punishments that have been handed out to other clubs for arguably much worse offences. S👍o it would be no surprise if many Leeds supporters were in complete agreement💮 with the former Crystal Palace owner.