Leicester have been left furious after drones flew over their first-team training session ahead of the crucial Premier League clash against Brighton on Saturday.
A video was released on social media which appeared to show the camera devices flying over the club's Seagrave base in Leicestershire as the Foxes worked on secret drills. Manager Brendan Rodgers, Arsenal target Youri Tielemans and Jamie Vardy were amongst those in shot as the drone filmed Leicester's training session.
Security guards confronted the drone operator outside the training ground and told him to leave as it was seen as trespassing on a private property. However, the YouTuber was insistent that he was allowed to fly the device over the facility and claimed everything he recorded was 'legal' despite being told he couldn't do it.
He managed to capture the team training as they performed some light ball work, while the goalkeepers were also in shot as they prepared for the visit of an in-form Brighton side on Saturday. Vardy was one of the players who viewers got a detailed look at as he trained alongside the rest of his teammates.
After he finished filming, the drone user was involved in an altercation with another security guard as he asked about whether the police were going to be involved. The clips were later uploaded on social media - and Leicester are reportedly far from happy.
A source told The Sun : "The man was insistent he wouldn’t leave. He filmed drills which are supposed to be kept confidential. They're a key part of team tactics and opponents finding out about them before a game would be a huge problem.
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"After the session the squad discussed it. We’ve since been told the club are taking it further as similar things have happened before and to rivals. Some footage has already been on YouTube and TikTok. Who knows where else it goes?"
This isn't the first time a club's training session has been filmed without permission, after former Leeds boss Marcelo Bielsa admitted to sending a spy to Derby's training ground back in January 2019. The club was fined £200,000 by the English Football League who said the move was unsporting but not illegal.
Frank Lampard, who was the Rams' boss at the time, was far from pleased with what happened in the build-up to their trip to Elland Road. Speaking in 2021, Lampard told the Overlap: "It wouldn’t have changed the game and they beat us the next day. He (the spy) was in the bushes laying down and had his binoculars out.
"He could’ve only got little information, but Bielsa said that much information wins them the game and I get that. But I feel like it was wrong and I had to defend that. I couldn’t come out and say it was a little bit out of order, I had to say it was out of order."
The EFL introduced a law forbidding viewing opponents' training sessions in the 72 hours before a match.
