Dwight McNeil-Ezgjan Alioski incident report to be passed to FA

| 15 May 2021

Dwight McNeil-Ezgjan Alioski incident report to be passed to FA

Incident occurred in the second half at Turf Moor.

A report will be passed to the Football Association after an incident involving Dwight McNeil and Ezgjan Alioski in Burnley's 4-0 defeat to Leeds on Saturday.

It came with a little over 20 minutes remaining of the match with Leeds 2-0 to the good, when McNeil appeared to say something in the ear of Alioski after he had gone down under a challenge near the touchline.

The Leeds player then got to his feet and responding by covering his ears and sticking out his tongue as both benches got involved in an argument.

Referee Graham Scott then called over managers Sean Dyche and Marcelo Bielsa, plus captains Ben Mee and Luke Ayling, before play resumed.

"A report has come into the referee and that will be passed on to the FA," Dyche said in his post-match press conference, but he did not say which player was involved. "One of our players made the report and I was there to be a witness to the report, not the incident.

"The report has been made with the referee and that's where it will stay for now."

Asked if there was a racial element to the complaint, Dyche declined to comment further and the FA said it would await the report before commenting.

Leeds manager Marcelo Bielsa said he had not seen the reaction of his player.

"I didn't see that there was an incident between the two," he said. "If there was a gesture I didn't see it. I saw there was a dispute but I didn't think it was too different to what usually happens within a game."

Dyche withdrew McNeil moments later as he was replaced by Johann Berg Gudmundsson, though the Burnley manager said the decision was unrelated.

"I was going to take Dwight off," he said. "He's put in a lot of effort this season and done very well over this season. This was the first time he's looked a bit jaded. I was nearly going to leave him out before the game, he's put a big shift in this season."