Leeds United boss Marcelo Bielsa wins Fifa Best award for Fair Play in same year as Spygate scandal… and fans are in shock

FANS were left bemused by FIFA’s decision to award Leeds boss Marcelo Bielsa the 2019 Fair Play award… after the Argentine coach admitted to SPYING on his opponents.

Bielsa received the honour for instructing his team to give a goal back to Aston Villa in a crunch Championship promotion fixture last season.

Controversy fired up in the April fixture when midfielder Mateusz Klich nabbed the ball as his opponents kicked it out for an injured player to receive treatment.

Klich went on to score and put the hosts 1-0 up, sparking a huge fracas that saw Ahmed El Ghazi sent off for a clash with Patrick Bamford – who was later given a two-match ban for faking the contact.

Amid the furore, Bielsa, 64, ordered his team allow Villa winger Albert Adomah an unchallenged leveller.

Not everyone inside Elland Road was happy with the plan, not least defender Pontus Jansson who appeared apoplectic given the 1-1 draw confirmed the automatic promotion of rivals Sheffield United.

It was exactly that factor which prompted FIFA to award Bielsa.

At Monday’s The Best award, he was honoured: “What was at stake makes Bielsa’s act of sportmanship all the more remarkable.”

Not everyone was on board with the love-in, however.

Earlier in the campaign, Bielsa had shown his selfless side in another way when personally stumping up a £200,000 fine handed to Leeds by the Football League.

The authorities had in fact punished the Whites once the coach had admitted to sending spies to every Championship opponent.

That was only after a member of his staff was discovered secretly watching Frank Lampard’s Derby train days before their top of the table meeting.

While not strictly illegal, the EFL saw fit to hand a severe reprimand to the club and Bielsa confessed it was “not necessarily the right thing to do”.

Club owner Andrea Radrizzani attended the Milan bash and tweeted: “Beautiful evening for ‘dirty Leeds’ winning a fair play award.”

Even former Leeds man Danny Mills felt the award was out of order, joking on TalkSPORT that Bielsa deserved the boot for ruining the “dirty” image of the club.

He claimed: “I think Bielsa should be sacked!

“You can’t have Leeds winning a fair play award, it’s outrageous!

“What happened to ‘dirty Leeds’? The whole ethos of the club is built on ‘dirty Leeds’ – this shouldn’t be happening!”