Nottingham Forest might be flying high in the Premier League but today some bad news has been delivered to Evangelos Marinakis.
The Reds beat Manchester City on Saturday to go four points clear of the reigning Premier League champions in the league table.
Callum Hudson-Odoi was lauded by Michael Owen after his match-winning goal and it’s been a magnificent campaign for the Reds up to this point.
Matz Sels kept a 12th clean sheet for the Reds, whilst Robbie Earle loved Ola Aina’s performance against Pep Guardiola’s team at the City Ground.
However, as the dust settles there will be some unwelcome news dropping into Marinakis’ inbox today regarding a fine that Forest had to pay last season.
Forest fans annoyed at huge FA decision over social media post
Unsurprisingly, an independent FA ruling have thrown their weight behind the fine they handed out to Forest for posting about the horrendous decisions in last April’s game against Everton.
Forest will now have to fork out £750,000 in the way of a fine and ultimately, it sets a dangerous precedent given that Gillingham received a much smaller fine for an act of racism from one of their fans last season.
Fans have been reacting to this and they believe that given Howard Webb admitted the errors, this should have been reduced at the very least.
Another fan was equally incensed and said: “They can fine and ban but that doesn’t change the fact they were right @FA_PGMOL. Especially considering you immediately changed guidelines and policies regarding match officials and their supported teams etc.”
Another thinks Forest have done okay out of it and said: “It’s a lot of money but are #nffc the real winners? The post drew media attention to the officiating of our games and we’ve had significantly less honkers go against us this season compared to last.”
Finally, another fan said: “Still my favourite tweet, love the chaos it caused. I want it printed on a cup to remember it forever seeing as we don’t have freedom of speech anymore.”
What Jamie Carragher said about Forest rant after defeat to Everton
Carragher will make his mind up; does he support Liverpool or Everton? At times, he feels like he cares deeply about both given that he was a blue growing up.
On that particular day, almost 12 months ago now, Carragher was very strong in attacking Forest for their actions after the Reds had three penalty calls go against them.
He said on Sky Sports: “It tells you where we are in the Premier League now, with the clubs. Stuart Attwell and Anthony Taylor have had an horrific day today, awful, and they should rightly be criticised for that. This could have real implications for Forest, I get the frustrations.
“But, what I’ve just read there on social media, it’s like a fan in a pub. That is embarrassing for Nottingham Forest. It’s rubbish about the VAR is a Luton fan? You can’t get involved in that. You’ve got to show a little bit of class if you’re a football club. It’s nonsense.”
Despite these comments, the PGMOL chose to change their policies over certain officials taking charge of certain clubs which suggests the person who put the tweet out might have had a point.
Ultimately, after the independent hearing there is no way back for Forest now and the club will simply have to pay the fine and move on.
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