Fulham head coach Marco Silva has been fined £80,000 and warned as to his future conduct following comments suggesting that referee Sam Barrott was too inexperienced to handle Fulham’s fixture at Newcastle United in December.
Silva, who admitted a breach of Football Association rule three, was incensed by the referee’s decisions during the first half of Fulham’s 3-0 defeat at St. James’ Park, claiming that the referee had missed an elbow on Raul Jimenez by Jamal Lascelles before the Mexican centre forward was sent off.
A statement from the Football Association this afternoon said:
“Fulham FC’s manager Marco Silva has been fined £80,000 and warned as to his future conduct for a breach of FA Rule E3 following their Premier League game against Newcastle United FC on Saturday 16 December 2023.
Mr Silva admitted that his comments in the post-match media interviews following the fixture, constitute improper conduct in that they imply bias and/or question the integrity of, and/or are insulting towards the match official (Referee) and/or the Video Assistant Referee, and/or bring the game into disrepute. The sanction was imposed by an independent Regulatory Commission.”
He went too far of course but refereeing currently is so inept that in the immediate aftermath of a match managers do very well to hold back their anger and maybe even contempt for officials. They obviously need to control what they say.
A better solution of course would be to have referees and a VAR system fit for purpose.
I ask myself why any manager would want to come to the Premier League if not for the money – if they are not from the ‘big’ clubs they get abused by the system. It is a poor reflection on our game – the guy protests against unfair decisions (VAR is ineffective and I sometimes wonder if corruption is involved) and it makes me want to walk away from this sport and go to rugby union (which itself is not squeaky clean). Why do we have to put up with inadequate administration in bulti-billion £ sports
Tony/Stephen totally agree with your comments. Abject refs, VAR inconsistent (at best) big team bias on decisions…the FA are weak as dishwater and go.for ‘easy targets’.