It’s not the fact that Forest were fined £750,00: the question is still “Why?”

 

 

• Are Arsenal, Man Utd and Liverpool just an entitled red cartel?
• It is time to stop this international nonsense now!

By Tony Attwood

So as you may have heard, Nottingham Forest have been fined (or as the journalists will soon have it, have “been hit with a fine.”)  It is also apparently “one of the biggest fines” in the history of the Premier League.

Three-quarters of a million pounds for a tweet about the match against Everton, which presumably makes it the most expensive tweet in the history of tweetering.   Forest, are said to be appealing.   It is being reported that the Football Association wanted a higher fine.   Presumably, they are feeling a bit cash-strapped.  It seems they wanted £1m.  Which raises the question: why?

Or two whys in fact.  Why were Forest fined at all and why that amount of money?

Now generally speaking punishments are handed out in order to stop people doing whatever it was that they did to get the punishment, again.   And to warn others not to do it.    But then we might ask again why?   What is so appallingly awful about saying that the referee and/or his association got it wrong in a particular match?

After all, we know that referees make mistakes.  Every match I go to, whether it is at Arsenal or at my local club Corby Toown (who play in the  Northern Premier League Division One Midlands) has supporters shouting out that the referee has got it horribly wrong.  We always complain, they never explain.

So if the punishment by the Premier League of  Nottingham Forest is for saying the referee got it wrong, it is a punishment system that isn’t really working very well, given that despite handing out the fines, the offences still continue everywhere from the terraces to the stands.   It’s not like saying drinking and driving is wrong, because there we can all see the horror consequences of that.   Here, no one can see what is wrong with saying “the referee made a mistake”.

Nottingham Forests apparently criticised the referee for “three extremely poor decisions” against them – and it appears their supporters agreed.   The club also said that they felt the VAR referee was a Luton Town supporter.  Maybe he was.  I don’t know.

Nottingham Forest denied everything, saying”We warned PGMOL that the VAR is a Luton fan before the game, but they didn’t change him…. Nottingham Forest will now consider its options.

That last bit I don’t really understand, because under the Draconian rules of the FA, the club has no options.  Cubs cannot question any judgement of any official under the rules.

After the fine Forest 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.”

And actually while we think about it, how about fining Manchester City for what they were found guilty of – but making it proportionate to the wealth of each club.  That would mean a fine of about £10 billion for City.

What PGMO didn’t know at the time, or if they did know, they didn’t mention was that the Forest post has reputedly been viewed 46 million times.   (I must say I find that unlikely, but that is what is being reported in the media).

The reason given for the size of the fine was that through the statement “the game was brought into disrepute.”   And let’s justs consider some of this, in a way that none of the media ever seem to want to do.

First, could the statement have brought the game into disrepute?   It would seem extremely unlikely since as far  as I can see most fans think most referees are pretty useless, and that their position as referees and the actions of the PGMO bring the game into disrepute each match.  Indeed most fans who know about such things tend to agree that maybe PGMO should be fined for each error it and its officials make.

Second, there is the notion that managers and other officials talking about the referees’ failings somehow reduces the well-being of the game.   But in fact the reverse is true.   Not noticing the appalling refereeing decisions that are made and the ineptitude of referees, and not mentioning this at all in the media, is what brings the game into disrepute, as it is clear that the PGMO and the compliant media are treating their audience as tiny children who care asked to believe in Father Christmas.

In fact there is no one who stands up for the PGMO and the referees in general other than the media, who are under instructions to do this.  If they don’t they lose their press passes.

And now going further, the media have become compliant making most fans understand that the media is nothing other than the voice piece of PGMO, and hardly an unbiased commentator.

So in one sense, the threat of the fine against Nottingham Forest is a good thing, as it brings home once more the fact that football in England is trapped in a world where multiple things are never allowed to be said.  Indeed the more this is realised the better it is.  Because ultimately the clubs will have had enough and will kick out PGMO and bring in something with at least a modicum of sense and understanding of the game, the players and the crowd who pay to watch..   So yes ok PGMO, dish out some more of these, and then ultimately the clubs and the fans will do something to kick you out.

The media will of course be left far behind, but then they weren’t really at the game to begin with, were they?