Chelsea manager, Frank Lampard, has blasted FIFA’s decision to award Marcelo Bielsa and Leeds, their Fair Play accolade on Monday.
The veteran Argentine coach and his players were awarded the Fair Play Award, for allowing Aston Villa to score against them in April.
Angry scenes broke out after Mateusz Klich scored for Leeds, while Villa’s Jonathan Kodjia lay injured on the field.
Bielsa insisted Leeds, despite the attempts of former defender Pontus Jansson to stop them, allow Villa to score immediately from the kick-off.
Lampard told reporters: “I don’t think it’s right, to be straight.
“It’s strange. Everyone had the same reaction. There was a lot of news about “SpyGate,” at the time, quite rightly so, and it got dealt with in the right way – and when you go and give an award for fair play in the same year, it’s strange.
“I don’t know who votes for it. Everyone knows what happened with “Spygate” – it is well documented. The rules changed because of it and they were fined.
“I felt it was improper, to get a fair play award off the back of that. I thought it was irony at first.
“It was a dead rubber against Villa. The game had slowed down to the point of the ball going out, and it was quite right they gave Villa the opportunity to score.
“It was quite right to level out the balance of what had happened. That was that. But it was a strange decision for them to win.”
