Chris
A petition titled “ban Patrick Bamford from professional football” has been set up after the Leeds United striker was accused of diving against Queens Park Rangers.
QPR goalkeeper Asmir Begovic was sent off for bringing down Bamford in injury time as Leeds claimed a 1-0 victory at Elland Road on Wednesday [4 October].
Bamford went down when through on goal, though he was called out by Tim Sherwood among others for going to ground without any contact being made.
A petition set up by the account “QPR Fanbase” on change.org on Thursday [5 October] called for Bamford to be banned for “continuously diving and simulating fouls to attempt to get his opponents sent off”.
The petition added: “The final straw was on the 4th October when Bamford dived outside the box causing Queens Park Rangers goalkeeper Asmir Begovic to be sent off and banned for 3 games.
“I call on the EFL to ban Patrick Bamford from playing football again, to reinforce the integrity of this league.
Unfortunately for Bamford, the replays are pretty conclusive – there was no contact made on him by Begovic, who will now serve a suspension.
Quite why Bamford would go to ground when there was an opportunity to score is anyone’s guess.
Journalist Darren Witcoop has suggested Bamford should be the one to serve a ban for his actions, while this group of QPR fans have gone even further.
Bamford is certainly not very popular in that part of West London right now, and in fairness the same would be true if the shoe was on the other foot and a QPR player attempted to get a Leeds player dismissed.
As ever in these instances, though, come the weekend the incident will more than likely be forgotten about and everyone can move on.
