LEEDS MANAGER MARCELO Bielsa has claimed responsibility for sending an employee of the club to spy on Derby County’s training session ahead of the two sides meeting tonight in the Championship.

Derby phoned local police after they caught a man “acting suspiciously” at their training ground, and today confirmed that they are talking to Leeds about the incident.

Speaking to Sky Sports ahead of tonight’s game, Bielsa said that he was responsible for sending an employee to watch Derby and insisted what he did was not illegal or unlawful.

“It’s true, there was someone from Leeds United,” he said through the help of a translator. “The one who is responsible for this incident is me.

“It doesn’t matter if this is legal or illegal, right or wrong. For me it’s enough that Frank Lampard and Derby County felt I did not behave well.

Yesterday I talked to Frank Lampard and he told me that I didn’t respect the fair play rules.

“I have a different point of view on it, but the important thing is what Frank Lampard and Derby County thinks.

I’m the only one responsible for it because I didn’t ask for the permission of Leeds United to do that.

“Without trying to find a justification, I have used these practices since the qualifications for the World Cup with Argentina.

“This is not unlawful and it is not illegal. We’ve been doing it publicly. We’ve been talking about it in the press.

“For some people it’s the wrong thing to do, for others it is not.”

Derby County manager Frank Lampard insisted he was not buying the excuse that Bielsa’s actions was acceptable in different cultures.

“At least, on a sportsman’s level, it’s bad in my opinion,” said Lampard.

“If we’re going to start talking about ‘culturally, I did it somewhere else’ – that doesn’t work for me.

“If I’m lucky enough to do well and travel to another country I’ll find out what the etiquette is in that country and abide by that.

“It’s disrupted our build-up to this game. People are going to say I’m trying to make an excuse, but I’m going to speak like this after the game – win, lose or draw.”

Ahead of a huge weekend of Heineken Champions Cup action, Murray Kinsella, Andy Dunne and Gavan Casey assess the provinces’ chances of putting a foot in the last eight:

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