Leeds say boos doing Ramadan pause ‘disappointing’
Comments under Leeds’ Instagram posts over the weekend were flooded with messages about Ramadan and fans’ reactions to the holiday.
It is understood that some fans sent e-mails to the club and expressed their anger at the lack of public reaction from the club, while one fan said that they were “deeply disturbed” and “ashamed” by what happened.
A public email response sent by Leeds’ fan liaison officer and seen by BBC Sport said: “The club is aware of the incident and it is disappointing that some fans chose to boo when the game was paused to allow players celebrating Ramadan to break their fast.
“The club is currently investigating why this happened and what can be done going forward to prevent incidents of a similar nature from occurring again in the future.”
Leeds manager Daniel Farke was asked about the issue at his pre-match press conference ahead of Tuesday’s Premier League match against Sunderland at Elland Road (7.30pm).
“Honestly, if there was real disrespect in that sense because of the break, then you have to say we all need to learn from that,” he said.
“That wasn’t my feeling during the match because it was a surprise for everyone to have this little break.”
Leeds lost the reverse fixture at the Etihad Stadium in November and Farke accused City goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma of faking an injury to “bend the rules”, allowing boss Pep Guardiola to call his players to the touchline and issue new instructions within two minutes of play being stopped.
Farke said: “I’m not sure everyone realizes when the sun goes down and we played our first game against Manchester City and we got paused after Pep. [Guardiola] We gathered all the players together and talked to them.
“We had a very good start to this game, we tackled them in the first 10 minutes and our fans felt they did the same in the first leg and that’s why they booed.
“I don’t think it has anything to do with the Ramadan holiday, I don’t think anyone is really aware. Someone told me it was on the screen but I’m not sure everyone is watching the screen at the moment.”
“If it is disrespectful for some people, it is unacceptable and we need to learn from it. There is no better place for football in general and us as a dressing room to live together with different passports, different religions, than the football club and our group.
“I know there’s a lot of solidarity and everyone supports the same group. I have a feeling the supporters don’t even know what’s going on.”
The club are understood to have privately admitted that their communication with fans before the game against City was poor.
A similar stoppage may occur in the second half of the FA Cup match against Norwich City at Elland Road on Sunday (16:30) and Leeds aim to provide advance notice of this.
