Nottingham Forest’s appeal against a £750,000 ($968,000) fine for insulting Premier League match official Stuart Attwell on social media last season was unsuccessful.
Following a 2-0 loss to Everton in the Premier League, where the team believed they had been denied three obvious penalties, Forest published the post in April of last year.
“Our patience has been tested multiple times,” the club said, adding that they had “warned” the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL), the body that oversees referees, that Attwell, the match’s video assistant referee, was a supporter of their relegation rivals Luton.
When a £750,000 fine was imposed by a regulatory authority in October, Forest promptly declared their intention to appeal, claiming the penalty was excessive.
The article, according to the Football Association, was a “egregious, direct, and public attack” on Attwell and a “unprecedented scale” attack on referees in general.
On Monday, the FA said that an appeal board had upheld the initial sentence and mandated the removal of the post.
On Monday, the link to the post on X was broken, but the club did not immediately clarify if it had been taken down.
“The (original) commission was entitled and right to give very considerable weight to the need for deterrence and the fact that NFFC had no mitigation,” the appeal board wrote in its reasoning.
The absence of mitigation was very noticeable.
Forest averted relegation previous season, although Luton were demoted to the Championship.
Forest is vying for a Champions League spot this season and currently sits third in the Premier League standings.
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