Forest fined almost $1M for questioning integrity of match officials in inflammatory post

LONDON (AP) — An inflammatory post that got more than 46 million views on social media has proven very costly for Premier League soccer team Nottingham Forest.

Forest was fined 750,000 pounds ($980,000) on Friday after being found to have questioned the integrity of match officials in an “irresponsible" post on X in April.

Forest said it would appeal the decision.

The post in question was published soon after Forest’s 2-0 loss to Everton last season, criticizing the officials for three overruled penalty calls in the match between two teams fighting relegation. It claimed the video assistant referee (VAR), Stuart Attwell, was a fan of rival club, Luton, which was also fighting for survival in England's top division.

“Three extremely poor decisions — three penalties not given — which we simply cannot accept,” read the post on Forest's official X account, which went viral. “We warned the PGMOL (English soccer’s referees body) that the VAR is a Luton fan before the game but they didn’t change him. Our patience has been tested multiple times.”

As well as imposing a fine, the independent panel also warned Forest about its future conduct.

While the sanction is big, the English Football Association (FA) wanted it to be even bigger. The governing body was seeking a fine of upwards of 1 million pounds ($1.3 million) to “reflect the seriousness of the misconduct.”

Forest said it was “particularly concerned” about the FA's desire for such a large fine to be imposed.

The panel said Atwell had written a statement describing his “stress, distress, fear and embarrassment” following the post.

The panel cited Forest's “reckless disregard to the consequences or impact of the post.”

It also noted a lack of apology from Forest or the removal of the post as “evidence of a lack of genuine remorse” from the club.

“This is relevant to the level of the financial penalty which we assess is necessary and proportionate in this case,” it said in its findings.

Forest said the fine and the FA's request for it to be greater was “wholly disproportionate”.

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The Associated Press