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London - Leeds United forward Patrick Bamford has received an immediate two-match ban after being found guilty of a charge of "successful deception of a match official", the Football Association announced Thursday.
Bamford will miss Sunday's clash at Ipswich and the first leg of the Championship play-off semi-final as fallen giants Leeds look to return to the Premier League.
The striker was suspended after clutching his face in a melee involving several players during last weekend's draw with Aston Villa.
Anwar El Ghazi was sent off as a result, but there was no contact made and the Villa forward's red card was rescinded.
In a statement, the FA said Bamford denied the charge but Leeds countered, saying they had asked for a "sensible sanction" after manager Marcelo Bielsa had allowed Villa to score in response to Leeds netting while one of their players, Jonathan Kodjia, was injured.
"The club felt that given the circumstances surrounding the incident, including the extraordinary act of sportsmanship which saw our head coach Marcelo Bielsa demand our team to allow Aston Villa to score an uncontested equaliser, we could have a sensible discussion around the sanction," said a Leeds statement.
"We acknowledge that the FA panel did not feel that to be reasonable and the club therefore joins Patrick in accepting the two-match ban."
