‘Dishonest’ – Phil Hay details what Leeds players were criticised for in Casilla FA hearing
The fallout from the Kiko Casilla ban is still being discussed, with Leeds United remaining silent since the written reasons behind the verdict were released by the FA.
The FA criticised Ben White and Tyler Roberts for being “unimpressive witnesses” and both Kiko Casilla and Leeds team manager Matt Grice have come in for criticism for the defence put forward by the club.
Athletic journalist Phil Hay discussed the case on a special edition of his podcast on Friday morning.
He said that the defence Casilla put forward was that he had “never heard the English version of the n-word until he was interviewed on October 24.
“The FA panel found that implausible and far-fetched. They said Casilla was using it as an unbreachable defence… and they didn’t accept that.”
Grice also said that he wasn’t aware of the exact allegation until a month after the game, despite the fact that he had been in with the referee along with Casilla after the game to discuss what had happened, and had held meetings with the Leeds players from the Monday after the Charlton game.
Hay went on to say, “Also, it transpires that a number of the players who appeared at the hearing said they had learned from Grice what the exact allegation were and that’s how they had found out what Casilla was being accused of.
“There was criticism of Ben White and Tyler Roberts, both described as unimpressive witnesses. In the case of Roberts, he was a good friend of Jonathan Leko, they were teammates at West Brom until Roberts moved to Leeds. He had WhatsApp messages from Leko detailing what he believed had been said to him. They were sent as Leeds travelled back from the game. So the idea that Grice or anyone else weren’t aware of the precise allegations didn’t wash with the panel.”
Hay concluded by saying, “There are parts of this that do not reflect well on Leeds”, and that some of the evidence given “just looks dishonest”.
We’ve called for Leeds to release a statement and take ownership of what’s happened.
You can argue the “balance of probability” until you’re blue in the face but parts of the written reasons do not reflect well on the club at all.
The defence put forward by Casilla and Grice, and backed up by Leeds players, would have been known about and agreed on by the club.
It doesn’t look believable and smacks of pushing a narrative from the top.
Leeds now need to make a statement, accept what’s happened, apologise and move on towards promotion and the Premier League.
In other Leeds United news, Leeds have left Bielsa out to dry and it is not acceptable