Nottingham Forest fined over social media post claiming VAR supported Luton Town
Nottingham Forest have been fined £750,000 by the FA for a social media post claiming a referee supported Luton Town and made decisions against them based on this.
The fine is in relation to a post made on Nottingham Forest’s Twitter/X profile on April 21st after a 2-0 defeat by Everton in a Premier League game at Goodison Park.
During the game, Forest had three penalty appeals turned down, with both the on-field referee and VAR declining to give them.
The game saw Stuart Attwell as VAR, with Forest claiming he was a Luton Town supporter at a time when Forest and Luton were both battling against relegation from the Premier League and that this motivation was why penalties were not given in their favour.
The post, which is still on Forest’s X account, read, “Three extremely poor decisions – three penalties not given – which we simply cannot accept.
“We warned the PGMOL that the VAR is a Luton fan before the game but they didn’t change him. Our patience has been tested multiple times.
“NFFC will now consider its options.”
In a statement, the FA said, “Nottingham Forest have been fined £750,000 and warned for misconduct in relation to comments posted on social media after their Premier League game against Everton on Sunday 21 April.
“The club denied that the comments posted on social media imply bias and/or question the integrity of the match officials and/or the video assistant referee and/or bring the game into disrepute.
“An independent Regulatory Commission found the charge to be proven following a hearing and imposed the club’s sanctions.”
The FA’s report said that former Premier League referee Mark Clattenburg, who at the time was working for Forest as a referee advisor, had called the PGMOL’s Chief Refereeing Officer Howard Webb to question the appointment of Attwell, but had his concerns declined.
This call took place two days before the game, in which multiple penalty shouts did not go in Forest’s favour. A PGMOL panel later ruled that while the first two decisions were acceptable, a third decision when Ashley Young made a challenge in the box on Callum Hudson-Odoi was incorrectly deemed not a penalty and that either a penalty should have been given or VAR should have advised match referee Anthony Taylor to review the incident at a monitor.
The disciplinary commission ruled that with Forest unwilling to apologise or delete the original post, the club’s misconduct charge was proven. In the report, it is stated that the FA deemed the post as an, “egregious, direct and public attack on the integrity of a Match Official and, in turn, the game of football, on an unparalleled scale”.
The commission duly ruled against Forest, who had denied charges they had questioned the integrity of the officials. As a result, they have handed Forest the fine and a warning to their future conduct. The FA also rejected a request from Forest for the fine to be suspended.
Forest have said they intend to appeal the ruling. In their own statement, they said, “Nottingham Forest Football Club is extremely disappointed with the decision of the Regulatory Commission to impose a £750,000 fine in relation to comments posted on social media following our Premier League fixture against Everton on Sunday 21 April.
“We are particularly concerned that The FA, in its submissions, sought a sanction “in excess of £1,000,000”. We believe that this request, along with the subsequent fine, is wholly disproportionate and the Club will be appealing the decision.”
