Arsenal handed hefty fine after incident in Wolves clash
Arsenal have been fined £65,000 after players surrounded the referee following a red card in their clash with Wolves.
Myles Lewis-Skelly was given a straight red card for his foul on Matt Doherty, in the 43rd minute during the fixture at Molineux on January 25.
Joao Gomes was later sent off for a second bookable offence before Riccardo Calafiori scored the winning goal for Arsenal.
Referee Michael Oliver was then subjected to threats and abuse on social media, which prompted an investigation, before the decision to send off Lewis-Skelly was later overturned.
At the time of the red card, several Arsenal players surrounded Oliver to protest the decision.
The London club have now been fined £65,000 for admitting the charge that alleged ‘Arsenal failed to ensure their players did not behave in an improper way’ following the red card decision.
The Regulatory Commission imposed the sanction following a hearing and the written reasons have now been published by the FA, in which mitigating factors were presented by Arsenal.
In the FA’s response to some of those mitigations, they said: “The duration of the misconduct, the close proximity of the players to the referee, the number of players involved and the failure to desist/disperse when the referee indicates for them to do so, all render this a serious matter and serve to aggravate the misconduct.
“The red card issued being overturned on appeal does not justify the reaction of AFC’s players surrounding the match referee and affords no mitigation.”
