The now infamous ‘battle of Stamford Bridge’ – West Ham style – cost Jean Clair Todibo a three match ban following his sending off by referee Anthony Taylor. At the time it looked as though Todibo should have been joined by Mavropanos and Traore whose aggression went unpunished even after VAR’s best endeavours.
Both clubs have now found out their punishment by the FA for the melee, as reported by the NY Times:
“Chelsea have been fined £325,000 and West Ham United £300,000 by the Football Association after a mass confrontation in last month’s match.
During Chelsea’s 3-2 league win over West Ham on January 31, the fixture was marred by what the FA called a “serious and unsightly incident” that involved both sets of players. It was started with a coming together in the 95th minute between West Ham’s Adama Traore and Chelsea’s Marc Cucurella.
Forward Joao Pedro then pushed Traore, who reacted angrily, as did the away side’s Jean-Clair Todibo.”
Which is controversial in itself. You did read that correctly, Chelsea’s fine is bigger than West Ham’s. Laughable. According to the NYTimes:
“In the written reasons, the FA continued: “It is sufficient to say that both clubs contributed to the incident.”
How the FA have managed to fine Chelsea more than West Ham is beyond me. Another example of the incompetence of the sport’s governing body? I’ll leave you to decide for yourself.
Either way £300000 is peanuts to clubs like West Ham and Chelsea. Small change.
Just nominal fines for both clubs then. Seems like FA live in a different world to the rest of us.
On the bright side though, these expenses might just help both teams with the financial fair play stuff.
Not sure if these fines are payable by cash now or if they can wait until both clubs have paid off their existing debts, deferred payments and loans.
We could have done without it is for certain.
It could have affected us appreciably more than it did.
As it happens we didn’t even miss Todibo, we got lucky.
“How the FA have managed to fine Chelsea more than West Ham is beyond me. Another example of the incompetence of the sport’s governing body?”
Simple, they’ve got more previous AND their players were deemed to be trying to incite the crowd… making a bad look for them even worse