Frank Lampard believes it was wrong to award Marcelo Bielsa the FIFA Fair Play Award after the Leeds boss admitted to spying on Derby last season.
The Whites were fined £200,000 by the EFL following the ‘Spygate’ scandal which infuriated former Rams boss Lampard.
Now in charge of Chelsea, the Blues manager revealed his disbelief upon discovering Bielsa was rewarded for his sportsmanship last season.
“I did smile,” Lampard said ahead of his side’s clash with Brighton on Saturday.
“Do we know who votes for these things?”
“What happened with Spygate was very well documented, and then they got fined, the rules changed slightly because of it, I felt it was improper.
“To get a fair play award off the back of that is… I thought it was irony at first.
“It was a strange decision for them to win that.
“I think everyone had the same reaction (to the fair play award), to be fair, because a lot of news was put to Spygate.
“And I think quite rightly so and it got dealt with in the right way, so when you go and give an award for fair play in the same year then I don’t think it’s right.”
Leeds were given the award for letting Aston Villa equalise during a Championship match towards the end of last season.
Angry scenes had broken out minutes earlier after the home side looked set to stop play because of an injury to Jonathan Kodjia before playing on and scoring through Mateusz Klich.
“The moment in itself when you look back, I remember watching the game, it was a dead rubber against Villa,” added Lampard.
“It was quite right that they give Villa the opportunity to score, quite right to level out the balance of what had happened.”
Danny Mills on Leeds winning the Fair Play award
