IF your club is going for end-of-season promotion and in a crucial match, would you allow your opponent to score unopposed in a 1-1 draw?
Lunatic, you may say, as the three points at home was like a life-or-death situation.
But Leeds United’s Argentinian manager Marcelo Bielsa’s extraordinary sportsmanlike decision to allow Aston Villa to score unchallenged in Sunday’s English Championship draw is all the more remarkable given what is at stake for the Championship club.
It’s a timely lesson for players and coaches, in Singapore and Malaysia, or anywhere in the world, to learn on the very honourable art of football sportsmanship.
Former Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger hailed it as a “remarkable gesture, very seldom seen in professional football”.
Leeds United, looking to secure promotion to the Premier League, netted the opener through Mateusz Klich in controversial circumstances as Villa’s Jonathan Kodjia lay injured on the pitch, sparking a melee.
Villa’s Anwar Al Ghazi was sent off for his role in the ensuing protests after which Bielsa did something very exemplary in the spirit of excellent sportsmanship.
He asked his players to allow the visitors to score unchallenged when the game was restarted!
“It is a very remarkable gesture. They are playing to come up to the Premier League and there is something at stake…the whole world has to watch that,” Wenger, who left Arsenal in May last year after 22 years in charge, told beIN Sports.
BITTER DRAW
The draw meant that second-placed Sheffield United joined leaders Norwich City in earning promotion to the top flight while third-placed Leeds’ hopes lie in winning the Championship playoffs, with West Bromwich Albion and Villa also involved.
The fourth and final spot is yet to be decided with Derby County, Middlesbrough and Bristol City all in contention.
Wenger said Villa had erred by taking their foot off the gas with a player down injured and expecting Leeds to kick the ball out of play.
“Only the referee can stop the game. That’s the rule in football. Villa should not have stopped to play. Leeds took advantage of it and that is where they were guilty,” the Frenchman added.
“It is a kind of fair play that is usually on the football pitch. Only the ref can stop the game but it is remarkable from Bielsa.”
Aston Villa manager saluted: “Full respect to Marcelo for doing that. I think sportsmanship has prevailed in the end.”
This is how Bielsa allowed Aston Villa to score the 1-1 equaliser unchallenged: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bciIpx5Ppyw
Speaking after the game with the help of his translator, Argentinian-born Bielsa, who has managed the national teams of Argentina and Chile, said English football is known for sportsmanship and showed no regret over his decision to allow his opposition back into the game.
“We just gave the goal back,” he said. “The facts are what everyone saw and we express our interpretation of the facts by doing what we did.
“English football is well known for sportsmanship so I don’t need to comment on this kind of thing that is common in England.” – By SURESH NAIR
Suresh Nair is a Singapore-based journalist who is surprised by Marcelo Bielsa’s fantastic gesture in a do-or-die Championship league match, where Leeds United badly wanted three points
