Familiar face to referee Leeds United vs Burnley weeks after confirmed Whites error
Leeds United have learned who will take charge of their Premier League meeting with Burnley at Elland Road on Friday.
The Premier League have confirmed their latest round of referee appointments, with Thomas Bramall to take charge of Leeds United vs Burnley.
Daniel Farke’s side have full focus on Premier League survival following their 1-0 FA Cup semi-final defeat to Chelsea on Sunday. The Whites are six points clear of 18th-placed Tottenham Hotspur and have just four games left to maintain that gap.
Friday-evening Elland Road visitors Burnley saw their long-expected relegation confirmed following last week’s 1-0 defeat at home to Manchester City. They have joined Wolves in dropping to the Championship but will look to repeat their 2-0 win over Leeds in October.
Ahead of another big game in the relegation battle on Friday, the Premier League have confirmed Bramall will take charge at Elland Road. The top-flight referee will be assisted by Constantine Hatzidakis and Craig Taylor, with Adam Herczeg as fourth official and Tim Wood on VAR duties.
Bramall has taken charge of 20 Premier League games this season, blowing for 21.6 fouls and brandishing four yellow cards per game on average. Friday evening will be the fourth time the Sheffield-born official has been involved in a top-flight Leeds game, with the most recent still fresh in the memory.
Bramall took charge of Leeds’ 0-0 draw at Crystal Palace last month and had a big role to play, sending Gabriel Gudmundsson off in first-half added-time after two bookings. The Swede was shown his second yellow card for a foul on Ismaila Sarr around the halfway line, with it clear the referee had forgotten about the initial booking.
Thomas Bramall’s last Leeds United game ended with red card
Having been reminded by several Palace players and fourth official Paul Tierney, Bramall was left with little choice but to follow that second yellow up with a red. At the end of last month, the Premier League’s Key Match Incidents (KMI) panel unanimously voted that Gudmundsson should not have received that second yellow.
The KMI panel, who a week prior also agreed Leeds should have had a penalty against Sunderland, said that there was ‘minimal contact’ in a challenge that was ‘careless and not clearly reckless.’ Down to 10 men, the Whites had to defend the entire second half before settling for a decent point in the circumstances.
"I'm not sure there are really words needed, everyone in the stadium could see," Farke said of the red card after full-time at Selhurst Park. "It was not even close to a yellow card, there was no pace in the duel, it was not a tactical foul.
“Why he has decided to give a yellow, has forgotten this player is on a yellow and was himself surprised his decision means a sending off. When you compare this when Brennan Johnson [on a yellow] was there with a tackle with more pace, a clear tactical foul - it was not a yellow for me, I'm not asking for a yellow/red.
“But for Gabi, his second foul of the game, then the game is influenced in a key matter. Details make the difference, a player less makes 10 per cent difference more or less. Thank God we found a way to travel with a point."