- How an incident in 2019 led to Spygate.
- Why the punishment was so different at the time.
- Lessons that should be learned from Spygate.
Just as a long Championship season felt like it was stuttering to a stop, the Spygate scandal turned everything on its head.
What people may not realise is how Norwich City unintentionally became the catalyst for the bizarre events that finished the season.
Leeds
In 2019, the EDP reported how then Leeds manager Marco Bielsa admitted to spying on Norwich City, in addition to several other Championship teams.
At the time, he stated, “Many are condemning the behaviour, saying that it was not ethical, that it was immoral. That it was violating or affecting fair play. That it was cheating.”
He mainly emphasised how this was done under his orders.
Where he was quite savvy was indicating that he was prepared to work with the authorities, which may have helped to reduce the sanctions that would have been applied to the club.
Punishment
For this Spygate prequel, Bielsa’s Leeds were fined £200,000.
It was this incident that led to the Football Association changing the rules in order to clamp down on teams doing this again.
Naturally Southampton fans might be looking at this. They might well be thinking:
“How does this equate to a points deduction and being booted out of the Championship play-off final?”
The simple answer is…
“The rules didn’t really exist at this point and therefore there was no context in order to specifically punish the club caught spying.”
Too far?
The Spygate debate has opened a number of opinions, with people split on whether it was excessive or whether it was brutal but ultimately a sufficient deterrent.
Southampton fans (and players) didn’t help themselves with their “banter”, doing mock binoculars while playing Middlesbrough.
I think if fans – other than Southampton fans – were honest with themselves, had Southampton merely been fined, then everyone would be complaining about how lenient the punishment was.
Consistency is key
Now that a precedent has been set, Spygate has to mean that any club caught will suffer the same fate if they are caught in order to avoid claims of bias.
There should also be equivalent punishments across the divisions.
If a Premier League club could potentially lose European football money, denied a title or get relegated then this should reduce the chances of another Spygate from happening.
Apparently Ipswich were one of the clubs spied on.
Maybe the film version of Spygate could be called The Spy Who Came In From The Farmyard?
