Leeds' Bamford gets two-game ban for deceiving referee
Leeds United's Patrick Bamford has been banned for two games for deceiving the referee during their 1-1 Championship draw with Aston Villa on Sunday, the Football Association (FA) has said.
Aston Villa's Anwar El Ghazi was shown a red card following an altercation with Bamford in the second half after Mateusz Klich had opened the scoring with a Villa player down injured.
Leeds boss Marcelo Bielsa then asked his players to allow Villa to score unopposed when the game was restarted.
The FA, who rescinded El Ghazi's red card on Wednesday, said Bamford was found guilty of "improper conduct" that had led to his opponent being dismissed.
"Patrick Bamford will serve a two-match suspension with immediate effect following a charge from the FA for 'successful deception of a match official,'" the FA said in a statement.
"Whilst the forward denied the charge, it was subsequently found proven during an Independent Regulatory Commission hearing today (May 2)."
Bamford will miss Leeds' final game of the season at Ipswich Town on Sunday as well as their playoff semi-final first leg.
Leeds and Villa have until Friday to respond to a separate charge of failing to ensure their players conducted themselves in an orderly fashion in the second half.