A Queens Park Rangers fan has started a petition to ban Leeds United star Patrick Bamford from football, accusing the forward of diving in their 1-0 defeat to the Whites on 4th October.
The incident occured late into the fixture when, through on goal, Patrick Bamford went down as goalkeeper Asmir Begovic rushed out to meet him resulting in a red card for the QPR man. Highlights appeared to show little or no contact being made between the onrushing forward and Begovic prompting criticism from pundits including Tim Sherwood.
Speaking live on Sky Sports he added:
“I don’t think there is any (contact),”
“When I look at the replay. I think Patrick (Bamford) might be a little ashamed when he sees this.
“He has gone down. When you see it first, it looks like Asmir (Begovic) might have caught him with the way Patrick goes down.
“Jimmy Dunn gets done in behind. He toes it. When you look at it from a different angle. You see the gap. He doesn’t touch him and he goes down. He got a red card. Very important for this team. He has been outstanding Asmir Begovic since he has been at QPR.”
This incident has prompted a QPR fan under the alias “QPR Fanbase” to set up the petition on change.org to “ban Patrick Bamford from professional football” for “continuously diving and simulating fouls to attempt to get his opponents sent off.” The petition was set up on the 5th October 2023 and brought to light by MOT Leeds News and currently has 77 signatures at the time of writing out of a target of 100. Whilst it is unlikely that the EFL will listen to the complaint it has attracted several comments, some comical in nature.
Tommy – Leeds Fan:
“I wasn’t going to sign this because I do like Patrick Bamford but when I heard that he is using his malevolent powers to prevent Gareth Ainsworth from getting a haircut – as you might reasonably expect from any self-respecting human being in full-time employment – I couldn’t sit idly by.”
Jair Turcios:
“Leeds fan here, thank you, I’ve been asking the same thing for two years.”
Darren Hatfield:
“Bamford is a disgrace to the professional game”
Kevin Savva
“Guy is a dirty cheat”
Writer’s View
Clearly the petition is tongue in cheek but it does highlight the continued battle between diving, officiating and use of technology. Would that have stood if VAR was present? Would people rather this was the outcome than have VAR? It is a hot topic and a matter for debate.