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da bet nacional： [ad_pod ]This article is part of Football FanCast’s Pundit View series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent quotes from journalists, pundits, players and managers…Marcelo Bielsa won the FIFA Fair Play award on Monday night as he was rewarded for his efforts in allowing his team to concede against Aston Villa last season. However, that decision has seemingly been laughed at by a host of pundits.
What have they said?
Leeds may have drawn at the weekend but they remain top of the Championship after bouncing back from their playoff heartbreak last season.
Despite a new campaign now being upon us, the demons of last term have quickly begun to unravel again for the Whites.
Bielsa managed to scoop the award for fair play at FIFA’s recent The Best awards this week but it wasn’t something that many in the football world took too kindly too.
That was certainly the case on BBC Radio 5 Live on Monday night as those appearing on the show laughed at the Argentine as they took a massive swipe in his direction.
Appearing on the show, this was just some of the reaction.
“You must be joking” – Micah Richards.
“Do previous misdemeanours not count?” – Chris Sutton.
“I’ve had to check with five different sources to make sure that someone wasn’t taking the mickey” – Mark Chapman.
Controversial?
Considering what happened last season it may come as somewhat of a shock to see the 64-year-old be rewarded with his fair play.
For the situation is was awarded for it seems justified but perhaps not when you dig further back into one of the major talking points from 2018/19.
Earlier this year there was, of course, the infamous spygate incident when Leeds sent someone to watch Derby train.
Bielsa ended up paying the £200k fine himself and since then his conduct has been far better, showing great professionalism in what he does.
He allowed Aston Villa to score in a clash at Elland Road last term following some unsavoury scenes while he also donated £1.9m to one of his former teams, Newell’s Old Boys, all the way back in October.
It is unsurprising given the events of spygate that the first reaction was to laugh but it would be wrong to suggest Bielsa didn’t do other things deserving of the award.