Derby County owner Mel Morris cites Spygate as the reason for Leeds United's drop in form

Derby County owner Mel Morris believes Leeds United's drop in form around the turn of the year was due to Spygate.
Derby County owner Mel Morris.Derby County owner Mel Morris.
Derby County owner Mel Morris.

United head coach Marcelo Bielsa saw one of his coaching staff spotted outside County's training ground in the build-up to their fixture in January.

The incident caused headlines across world football, with Leeds fined £200,000 by the EFL with the governing body also implementing a new rule against 'spying' on the opposition within 72 hours of any fixture.

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Leeds triumphed over the Rams twice in the regular season, and opened up a five-point gap at the top of the table following the Whites 2-0 victory in the New Year.

The Rams chief, though, saw his side have the final say as Frank Lampard's men ran out 4-2 aggregate winners in the semi-finals of the Championship play-offs to book a spot at Wembley and end United's campaign.

Morris, who was speaking on talksport, revealed his belief that Spygate was a major factor behind United's drop in results, which saw them lose out in the race for automatic promotion.

“Prior to Spygate Leeds were flying at two-points-a-game and after Spygate dropped down to less than 1.6-a-game,” Morris revealed.

“Now, is that down to Spygate?

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"I don’t know, but you have to say there’s a correlation between those things that says maybe there’s a benefit from this.”

Asked about the resulting consequences for United in the aftermath, he continued: "It’s up to the EFL to do whatever they feel is right in those situations.

“What I would say is you only have to look at some of the situations where maybe there’s a set-play routine that’s particularly intricate and successful that someone spotted on the training field could massively change the result of a game.

“To know someone’s going to change the formation they’re going to play. Let’s take our second leg against Leeds in the semi-finals and Frank played a diamond for the first time.

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“If somebody had known we were going to play a diamond I guarantee they would have set up differently against us and probably might have changed that result.

“There’s definitely no doubt having additional information about a club changes them. Now, if everyone’s allowed to do it, in a different culture, it’s neutral, the effect is neutral.

“It’s only when someone does it in the environment and the rest aren’t doing it you gain an advantage from it.”