Outspoken pundit Stan Collymore has said that the EFL didn’t go far enough in its wording after the Leeds bust-up with Aston Villa.
He pointed out that the EFL had said that Bamford had been charged with “successful deception of match official” after going down without being touched in the game at Elland Road.
He said that what the EFL should have said is: “Bamford charged with cheating opponents, Leeds United and Villa”.
He said that would “embarrass” players and would stop them from doing it again.
Bamford faces a two-match ban that will see him miss the last game of the season against Ipswich on Sunday and the first leg of the play-off semi-final.
Bamford charged with "successful deception of match official "
Why fluffy terms? This is part of the problem, players not made to FEEL embarrassed by actions.
"Bamford charged with cheating opponent, Leeds United & Villa" is better.
Embarrass them. Will stop immediately. ?????
— Stan Collymore (@StanCollymore) April 30, 2019
OPINION
It’s hard to argue with Collymore, no-matter what team you support. Leeds fans were fairly united in their condemnation of what Bamford did, but he isn’t the first to do it and he certainly won’t be the last. More strident language might help but when you’ve got footballers who are aware of cameras in the ground, and know they’ll get a ban if they cheat, but still do it?Footballers are obviously doing this without thinking and that’s pretty tough to combat. It’s out of character for Bamford and he’ll be feeling pretty sore about letting his side down ahead of the play-offs but Aston Villa getting off scott-free doesn’t seem right. They played more than their fair share in the bust-up and a punch was thrown which was deemed not to be violent conduct. While we don’t want to see a player cheating to get another sent off, we think a punch being thrown is a worse offence.