Nottingham Forest has been fined £750,000 ($979,500) and issued a formal warning by the Football Association (FA) for misconduct following a social media post that criticized refereeing decisions after their Premier League loss to Everton last season.
The FA confirmed the sanctions on Friday, highlighting that the club’s comments questioned the integrity of match officials, particularly Video Assistant Referee (VAR) Stuart Attwell.
Forest, frustrated by the denial of three penalty claims in their 2-0 defeat, swiftly took to social media platform X to accuse VAR official Attwell of being biased due to his alleged support for Luton Town, a club involved in a relegation battle with Forest at the time.
While Forest ultimately finished 17th, narrowly avoiding relegation, Luton was demoted.
“The club denied that the social media post implied bias or questioned the integrity of the match officials, but an independent Regulatory Commission found the charge to be proven after a hearing,” the FA said in a statement.
READ ALSO: Nigeria signs gas deal for $3.5 bln fertiliser plant with Shell, Eni, TotalEnergies
In their now-deleted post on X, Forest stated: “Three extremely poor decisions—three penalties not given—which we simply cannot accept.
We warned the PGMOL (Professional Game Match Officials Limited) that the VAR was a Luton fan before the game, but they didn’t change him.”
The FA condemned Forest’s public criticism, labelling it an “unparalleled attack” on a match official’s integrity. According to the FA, no other professional club had previously breached its social media regulations to this extent.
Forest has announced plans to appeal, calling the fine “wholly disproportionate” and expressing concern that the FA had initially sought a penalty exceeding £1 million.
The club had also requested a suspension of the fine, but this was rejected.
Forest’s appeal will now test the boundaries of the FA’s regulations governing the conduct of professional clubs on social media.
