Fulham manager Arbeloa fined £25,000 over referee comments

Fulham manager Alvaro Arbeloa has been fined £25,000 and warned by the Football Association after accepting a charge of improper conduct over comments questioning a referee’s decisions following a draw with Manchester United. The charge concerned remarks made after the teams’ 1-1 Premier League match at Craven Cottage on September 20. Arbeloa said that decisions had favored United and suggested he expected the officials not to let the club lose, referring to a contentious goal in its match against Manchester City the previous weekend. The independent commission’s written reasons said Arbeloa’s words suggested repeated bias by match officials during the Fulham match. It also said they implied there may have been premeditation by officials or others to compensate for an error in a different match. Those were the commission’s characterizations of the remarks; the disciplinary decision does not establish that referees were biased or acted deliberately. Arbeloa accepted the FA charge, which alleged that his post-match comments implied bias or questioned the integrity of a match official. The fine and warning were announced on Wednesday, October 14.