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Forest

“He’s Guilty”: FA slams Evangelos Marinakis

City Ground owner got off lightly after an independent commission found him guilty of a ‘ disrespectful and disgusting display of contempt’

In football, there have been some laughable explanations for flagrantly bad behaviour down the years.

Jude Bellingham explained that his crotch-grabbing gesture after scoring that dramatic late equaliser in England’s last-16 game at Euro 2024 had not been aimed at the Slovakian bench, who had been giving him pelters all game, but was actually part of an in-joke he was sharing with three friends in the crowd for the match in Gelsenkirchen.

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Ah, right, Jude. As his one-match ban was suspended and he was only fined €30,000, perhaps UEFA partially believed him, perhaps they thought he was not talking complete ‘b*****ks’.

The classic of this genre, of course, came from the late Gerard Houllier when he faced the press after Robbie Fowler had celebrated a successful penalty in a Merseyside derby at Anfield in 1999 by crawling along the byline in front of Everton fans – who incessantly made completely unjustified suggestions about the Liverpool striker’s social habits – sniffing the whitewash while pressing a finger against one nostril.

Sat in that Anfield media conference, there was incredulous amusement when the wonderful Houllier claimed Fowler’s celebration was actually a tradition of celebrating goals by pretending to eat grass brought to Liverpool from Metz by Cameroonian defender Rigobert Song. Still to this day, I marvel at how Gerard kept a straight face.

The Football Association should have given him a medal for creativity but, unsurprisingly and correctly, gave Fowler – who had a nose for trouble as well as goals – a four-match ban and a £25,000 fine. If it was not so serious and disgusting, you might be tempted into raising some sort of grim smile when reading the explanation given by Nottingham Forest after Evangelos Marinakis spat towards match officials in the City Ground tunnel after Fulham’s well-deserved 1-0 win towards the end of last month.

Robbie Fowler got a four-match ban and £25k fine for this celebration in a Merseyside derby in 1999

In front of an independent commission, the Forest defence of their owner read: “As the officials approached he (Marinakis) felt a cough coming and he coughed on the floor, down and to his right which was away from the path the officials were taking.

“He cannot now remember if any spittle left his mouth but if it did (and he does not challenge that some might well have done) it certainly was not aimed at the referee’s feet and did not hit anybody. He fails to see how coughing (where spit or phlegm can come out from any person) towards the floor in a relatively crowded tunnel is misconduct.”

Thankfully, the FA confirmed the commission was “satisfied” Marinakis was guilty of “a disrespectful and disgusting display of contempt”, considered his defence “completely implausible” and gave the Forest owner a five-match stadium ban. That sanction was announced last Friday and Forest immediately announced an appeal against it.

Four days later, the written reasons were released by the FA … yet, apparently, Forest are still happy for their appeal to stand. Mind you, this is the club that has recently been fined £750,000 for suggesting a match official was biased against them.

When there is such blatant, deeply unpleasant disrespect for and undermining of officials from the very top of a football club, no punishment is too harsh. When the commission hears the appeal, there should only be one outcome. The sentence should not only stand … it should be doubled.

 

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