Controversial decision taken by Leeds manager revives football as sport's beautiful game
By Johnathan Elderfield
Football is the world’s most popular sport, played across every continent, celebrated everywhere.
In recent decades it has been cast in a darker light; players being paid extortionate wages; the urge to cheat, waste time, and dive at every occasion.
And then there was that one incident at the world cup where Luis Suarez decided to bite Italian defender Giorgio Chiellini.
Last week, Leeds took on Aston Villa – both battling for promotion to the Premier League – at the historic Elland Road.
Leeds Midfielder – Mateusz Klich – put the home side when Villa’s Jonathan Kodjia laid on the floor injured.
Villa stopped playing which allowed the Klich to put the ball in the net with ease.
As a result, a massive brawl erupted on the pitch between the players. Anwar El Ghazi was sent off for Villa and football continued – for the moment – to be that beautiful game played by thugs.
What happened next is one of many reasons, why football is so beautiful.
Leeds manager, Marcelo Bielsa ordered his team to stop playing.
That allowed Villa to walk the ball into an empty net and equalise with 10 minutes to play making it 1-1. Superb.
But this isn’t the view of everyone.
“I think its rubbish, the Villa player continued playing after he was down and that is like rubbing it in to the fans at Leeds who came, paid and watched,” said Marley Cooper, 21, from Bournemouth.
Football has always been an opinionated sport through its subjective nature – the offside rule, extra time and referee decisions will continue to cause controversy.
“As a Leeds fan I thought it was fantastic. A great show of sportsmanship and that is what Leeds is all about. Bielsa’s decision will go down in his legacy,” says Leeds fan Michael Northrop.
It isn’t often that football shows signs of sportsmanship, with the stakes being so high and money dominating the sport. But, this game shows that there is still decency in the beautiful game.
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