Ramadan boos showcased febrile Leeds United fans at their very worst | OneFootball

What was going through the mind of proud Muslim Joel Piroe, watching on from the bench, when – at a conservative estimate – thousands upon thousands of Leeds United fans booed during the break for Ramadan early in Saturday’s 1-0 defeat to Manchester City?

You imagine many of those same supporters were happy enough to cheer on the striker last season when he helped fire Leeds to a 100-point promotion as the Championship’s top scorer.

Piroe has struggled for playing opportunities following the arrival of reinforcements in the summer. He was talked up for a PSR-accommodating move away in January, but he evidently felt happy and comfortable enough to fight for his place.

Will he still feel quite as comfortable today? After many who support his club could not do the bare minimum of affording his religion the most basic decency and respect? You doubt it.

Let’s be clear: such people are Leeds United supporters. There’s often a line trotted out when fans act disgracefully or air unpalatable views that such types aren’t “real” fans of the club. But they paid their money to be there just like everybody else.

It’s an uncomfortable truth, but one Leeds as a club must wrestle with.

Much of the pre-match narrative was about Leeds United’s record ‘under the lights’ at Elland Road this season. The club have picked up the majority of their points this season in late kick-offs, when the atmosphere tends to be at its most febrile.

Arsenal recently came away from Leeds with three points and minimal fuss in a 3pm Saturday kick-off. But their fans could take heart that their title rivals would find going to Elland Road considerably more difficult. The stats bear it out: Leeds are a different beast once the sun goes down.

On Saturday, it felt as though the home crowd were keen to live up to their billing as the best, most hostile fans in the Premier League.

Business as usual before kick-off; the Premier League’s corporate anthem booed before a rousing rendition of ‘Marching on Together’. The message clear: this is Leeds United, and we will fight tooth and nail against becoming another part of the sanitised, gentrified Premier League machine.

As has so often been the case this season, the players appeared buoyed by that support early doors. The hosts started out on top. Dominic Calvert-Lewin missed a glorious chance to open the scoring. Elland Road felt particularly Up For It.

It was in that context, around the 12-minute mark, that Rodri did what he does so well and bought a cheap free-kick.

The home crowd were already incensed by referee Peter Bankes’ decision and there was an added layer of frustration and confusion when play didn’t immediately resume – “what the f*ck’s going on?” and “get on with it” were shouts around me in the West Stand, and presumably around the whole stadium.

It ought to be remembered that there was a minor furore from the reverse fixture at The Etihad when Gianluigi Donnarumma went down with an injury midway through the second half, conveniently enough sapping Leeds’ momentum just as they’d started to get back into the match. Daniel Farke had raged about it afterwards.

It had been announced long before the match that there’d be the now-standard break in play to allow Muslim footballers to break their fast and get some much-needed nutrition and hydration at sundown. But such arrangements – even assuming they are heard – are easily forgotten in the moment.

One person in my group didn’t understand what was going on until after the final whistle. Elsewhere, you could feel a Larry David-esque moment of awkward realisation when the message appeared on the screen explaining the reason behind the pause. Many of the boos appeared to come from the South Stand, who naturally face away from Elland Road’s one screen.

The whole situation could have been handled better by the club. not least an immediate message from Elland Road’s (admittedly faltering) PA system to swiftly cut through the noise.

I know all of this sounds like like mealy-mouthed excuse-making, which was rife on social media from ardent, defensive Leeds fans after the match.

Some felt able to speak for the entire fanbase and explain the boos, which of course had absolutely nothing to do with racism.

‘Leeds fans need to be honest about why they booed Muslim players,’ read the headline from former Football365 writer Daniel Storey’s excellent piece in The i.

There is no arguing with that. It is an unequivocal truth that many in the stadium booed loudest when the message appeared on the screen.

You either have to be immensely dense or simply acting in bad faith to claim that – at the very least – a sizeable number of Leeds fans weren’t booing the Ramadan stoppage itself.

If Leeds United’s assistant manager Eddie Riemer, conducting media duties following Daniel Farke’s sending-off, can do better than Jose Mourinho and strike the right chord, refusing to make excuses, so too can the fans.

“I’m focused on the game so I don’t really hear it, but disappointed with some supporters that that happened,” Riemer said.

In the press conference, he added that Leeds will “try to learn out of it” and “need to do better next time”.

Having been there and witnessed the confusion, I do not doubt that some didn’t realise what they were doing. When it comes to the percentages, there is no way of knowing for sure.

The optimist in me is desperately hopeful that the sheer volume and intensity of the boos can be explained by misunderstanding and bad messaging.

The grim alternative is that things have gone severely, dangerously backwards since the days when those who booed the Black Lives Matter protests were a notably shouted-down minority.

Unfortunately, given the rightward slide towards intolerance and islamophobia in wider society, it’s also eminently possible that the very worst elements of Leeds United’s fanbase now feel emboldened to express their ugliest impulses. And I for one feel sick.