Leeds United chief executive Angus Kinnear has said that Leeds have done everything they can to help the EFL investigation and that any further questions they might have “don’t concern us”.
in a defiant interview he made it very clear that Leeds “haven’t been charged with anything” and that there is no rule that has been transgressed.
Kinnear was talking on West Yorkshire Sport Daily (BBC Radio Leeds, Wednesday, 6pm) ahead of the Championship clash against Swansea at Elland Road, that Leeds went on to win 2-1.
The spygate scandal started when Derby noticed a man acting suspiciously outside a training session the day before their Championship clash with Leeds.
It turned out that he was a Leeds employee and ahead of the game the next day, Leeds manager Marcelo Bielsa took full responsibility for the incident. The following week he admitted that he had watched all of Leeds’ opponents train and the EFL announced that it was investigating.
That investigation has yet to be concluded, with the EFL saying they need more time to reach a conclusion.
“We are co-operating fully with the investigation”, Kinnear said on the BBC.
“We’ve been transparent from day one and there’s nothing to hide. We’ve put our case forward very robustly to the EFL and to the FA. They have asked further questions which don’t concern us. We’ll continue to co-operate and bring it to a quick conclusion.
“I trust in the due process. We haven’t been charged with anything. They are within their rights to investigate. From all the coverage you can see it’s a grey area and this is in an era when regulations are very specific. If they want to regulate against something, they do.
“I understand the interest in it and we just want to get it over as soon as possible.
Asked whether it was affecting the team he said, “We take this away from him so we don’t let it affect Marcelo. It’s been a distraction for me but that shouldn’t matter because I don’t play. It’s not something that affects the people at Thorp Arch.”
OPINION
Kinnear makes it very clear that Leeds haven’t been charged with anything and also that he’s not expecting any punishment. He pointed to very specific rules in a rule-heavy framework, and hinted that the investigation could lead to a rule change. This surely wouldn’t affect Leeds, who are unlikely to repeat what Marcelo Bielsa thought was fairly normal practise. The frustration will be that the investigation is dragging on. Kinnear said it’s not affecting his Leeds side but it would obviously be beneficial to have any threat of a punishment taken off the table. The EFL could actually do this in the interim and carry on with the investigation if they wanted to, but instead Leeds will have to be patient. It doesn’t seem to be affecting them though, as they moved back to the top of the league with the 2-1 win against Swansea last night.