It was bad news for Leeds United fans after they lost two games in a row over the past week. They now have to look over their shoulders after their relegation rivals picked up points.
There was a lot of surprise when the Whites failed to pick a single point in two games against Manchester City and Sunderland. Especially in the game against Regis Le Bris’ men who had not won a game in their last four before their visit to Elland Road.
However, after a very flat performance as the home side, the talking points that dominated the week were off the field. Minutes into the first half of the City game, play was paused for some players to break their Ramadan fast.
Simon Jordan responds to Leeds United statement after Ramadan controversy
That prompted some boos and chants from the Elland Road crowd. It became the major point of discussion even after Leeds dropped points in the battle for relegation. Before the FA Cup game against Norwich on Sunday, the club released a statement asking fans to be cordial as players observing Ramadan break their fast during the match.
In the Norwich game at Elland Road, some fans in the home crowd gave applause as the players broke their fast. The club being proactive, getting a statement out and putting the message on the screens in the stadium brought a positive reaction. Simon Jordan has responded to the club statement before this weekend, giving his thoughts on the situation again.
”This is kind of what their fans that called in last week were saying. But there seemed to be a preferred explanation um from callers that came in and from people that were describing it uh that it was steeped in one thing and one thing only, discrimination. There always seems to be this rush to make that judgment where it legitimately exists.” he said on talkSPORT.
”I’m pleased that Leeds have bothered to put out the clarification because when you start flinging around observations about the way that people operate, the way that football clubs operate, the way that fan bases operate and all of a sudden you get tarnished by it and you get damaged by it and you don’t deal with it and you don’t correct it. Yeah. Then it becomes a narrative.”
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Right decision for the club to address this
The club were right to put the statement out asking the fans to be respectful during the break. The way the whole issue was dealt with after the Manchester City game was not the best. And you could see from the crowd reaction that now the whole issue has been clarified, and the reason for the break explained, it worked. Simon Jordan is right, the club needed to clarify and deal with the situation, before it became a narrative that stuck to the fanbase for the rest of the season.
