Leeds forward Patrick Bamford has been given a two-match ban after a charge of successfully deceiving a match official was proven.
The Football Association announced on Thursday that Bamford would miss two games — Sunday’s clash at Ipswich and the first leg of the play-off semi-final — after clutching his face during a mass altercation between Leeds and Aston Villa players last Sunday.
Villa’s Anwar El Ghazi was sent off as a result, but there was no contact made and El Ghazi’s red card has was rescinded.
In a statement, the FA said Bamford denied the charge but Leeds countered saying they had asked for a “sensible sanction” after boss Marcelo Bielsa had allowed Villa to score in response to Leeds netting while one of their players was injured.
The Bamford incident came as a result of the goal scored by Mateusz Klich, which came as Villa’s players stopped, expecting the ball to be put out of play with Jonathan Kodjia injured.
In the aftermath, Bielsa instructed his players to allow Villa to go through and score from the kick-off.
“The club felt that given the circumstances surrounding the incident, including the extraordinary act of sportsmanship which saw our head coach Marcelo Bielsa demand our team to allow Aston Villa to score an uncontested equaliser, we could have a sensible discussion around the sanction,” a Leeds statement said.
“We acknowledge that the FA panel did not feel that to be reasonable and the club therefore joins Patrick in accepting the two-match ban.”
