An inflammatory social media post that gained over 46 million views has ended up costing Nottingham Forest, a Premier League soccer team, quite a bit.
On Friday, Forest was fined £750,000 (about $980,000) after it was determined that they questioned the integrity of match officials in an “irresponsible” post on X in April. The team announced it would appeal the ruling.
This controversial post was shared shortly after Forest lost 2-0 to Everton last season. It criticized the officials for three penalty calls that were overturned during the game, which involved two teams trying to avoid relegation.
The post claimed that the video assistant referee (VAR), Stuart Attwell, was a supporter of Luton, another team also struggling to stay in the Premier League.
“Three extremely poor decisions — three penalties not given — which we simply cannot accept,” the post on Forest’s official X account stated, which quickly went viral.
“We warned the PGMOL (the referees’ organization) that the VAR is a Luton fan before the game but they didn’t change him. Our patience has been tested multiple times.”
Along with the fine, the independent panel cautioned Forest about its behavior in the future.
While the fine is significant, the English Football Association (FA) wanted it to be even higher. They were seeking a fine of over £1 million (around $1.3 million) to reflect the seriousness of the situation. Forest expressed being “particularly concerned” about the FA’s push for such a large fine.
The panel mentioned that Atwell had stated he felt “stress, distress, fear, and embarrassment” after the post was made. They also noted Forest’s “reckless disregard to the consequences or impact of the post” and pointed out that the club did not apologize or remove the post, which indicated a “lack of genuine remorse.”
