Oct 11, V7N- Nottingham Forest has been fined £750,000 ($979,500) by the Football Association (FA) and issued a warning for misconduct after a social media post criticizing the referee following their Premier League defeat to Everton last season. The controversy stemmed from Forest’s frustration over being denied three penalty claims in their 2-0 loss and a subsequent post on X (formerly Twitter) accusing Video Assistant Referee (VAR) Stuart Attwell of being a fan of Luton Town, a club also involved in the relegation battle at the time.
Forest, who eventually finished 17th and avoided relegation while Luton went down, denied that the post implied bias or questioned the integrity of the officials. However, the FA deemed the post as a public attack on the integrity of the match officials on an "unparalleled scale" and found the club in breach of its social media regulations.
In their defense, Forest claimed they had previously warned the PGMOL (Professional Game Match Officials Limited) about Attwell's alleged association with Luton but did not request his recusal. Despite Forest’s objections and their request for the fine to be suspended, the FA rejected the appeal. Forest, in a statement, criticized the FA’s original request for a fine "in excess of £1,000,000" as disproportionate and confirmed they will appeal the decision.
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