Centre-back Jaka Bijol has been told he must serve a ban handed to him at his former club
New Leeds United player Jaka Bijol undergoes his medical prior to signing for the club. Photo by Malcolm Bryce/Leeds United FC via Getty Images
Leeds United will be without their biggest signing of the summer so far when they host Everton on the opening weekend of the season. The Blues begin their campaign with a trip to Elland Road on Monday, August 18 in what should be an intriguing encounter with the newly-promoted Whites.
The Championship winners will be unable to name new centre back Jaka Bijol as they bid to consolidate their Premier League status, however, after the club were informed he must serve a suspension handed to him with his former club, Udinese.
A £15m recruit from Serie A, Bijol joined Leeds in June and is expected to be central to the plans of manager Daniel Farke.
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According to the Yorkshire Evening Post, Farke will have to start the season without his new man, though, after the Slovenia international was told the suspension he should have incurred for a red card on the final game of last season in Italy must be carried over to the Premier League.
Bijol was shown two yellow cards in the first half of Udinese’s 3-2 home defeat to Fiorentina – the late winner being scored by former Everton striker Moise Kean.
The 26-year-old appeared unaware that sending off would have implications at his new club. Upon joining Leeds, he told the club’s LUTV channel that he was “excited” about the prospect of getting his first minutes against the Blues.
The confusion has shades of the last time Everton visited Elland Road, back in August 2022 under Frank Lampard.
New signing Neal Maupay was forced to miss that game because of a quirk in the Premier League rules – but the Blues only discovered he was ineligible late in their preparations for the game.
League rules state a new player must be registered by midday on the last working day before a fixture. With Maupay signed on the previous Friday afternoon that left him unable to make his debut at Brentford the following day.
The club had anticipated he would, therefore, be able to start his ill-feted Blues career at Leeds the following Tuesday – only to find out he could not because the Monday was a bank holiday and not considered a working day by the league.