Arsenal Women have been charged with a breach of rule FA rule E20.1. An FA statement read that “The club allegedly failed to ensure that its players conducted themselves in an orderly fashion during the 67th minute of the game against Manchester City Women on Sunday 23 January 2022.”
The club has until the 31 January to respond. The charge refers to Arsenal player’s complaints over the build up to the Manchester City goal when a pass from Lucy Bronze hit referee Abigail Byrne. The referee elected not to stop play in the usual fashion, believing that her action did not alter the play.
Arsenal are *NOT* happy with Manchester City's opener…👀
The ball hit the referee and fell to a #MCFC player in the build-up – should the goal have stood? 😬 pic.twitter.com/OuzpzsUJdo
— Sky Sports WSL (@SkySportsWSL) January 23, 2022
Gunners boss Jonas Eidevall was booked for his protests from the dugout, though the charge does not relate to his behaviour. Captain Kim Little, Tobin Heath and Jordan Nobbs remonstrated with the referee in the aftermath of the goal insisting play ought to have been stopped.
the more you watch it, the worse it gets honestly pic.twitter.com/nEAQ2rmcKz
— Iucy not vives (@maialycia) January 24, 2022
Replays seem to suggest that play should indeed have been stopped as the referee did divert the course of the ball. The FA have charged the club for the players’ protest. It follows on from the men’s team being charged under the same law for their protests around the controversial decision to award Bernardo Silva a penalty in the game between the teams on New Year’s Day.
Today is also transfer deadline day in the WSL. I am not expecting Arsenal to add anyone, Viki Schnaderbeck could well join Spurs before the day is out with Rafaelle and Laura Wienroither having bolstered the defence during this window.
The FA really do love an Arsenal fine don’t they!
They must be doing an office refit or something at the min they need a few bob to finish it.
https://www.thefa.com/news/2022/jan/04/fa-charges—december-2021-040122#:~:text=24%20August%202021-,Breach%20of%20FA%20Rule%20E20.,provocative%20and%2For%20violent%20behaviour.
Nah… It’s not an Arsenal thing. You can look through the FA archives to see which clubs have been charged within the last year. I think Chelsea have been charged like three times this season.
I did however, see a lack of Man Utd, Man City and Liverpool mentioned in those archives when I last checked.
Sometimes you have to wonder at these bureaucrats. Do they have nothing better to do? The ref as far as I can see didn’t book half of the team for protesting and yet someone in an office who has probably never played sport at such a level has determined that the behaviour was unacceptable and the whole club should be charged. How often in games when tempers run high in the heat of the moment do you see players (and coaches 🙂 ) ‘lose it’ with the officials and nothing is ever done? Personally, I would have been disappointed if… Read more »
The players protested a genuine refereeing error.
which in my opinion means they shouldn’t be charged for this.
my opinion as a football fan who seems to know the rules myself doesn’t matter for shit when we are talking about an industry that loves money for nothing.
I’m expecting that the fine will be proportional to the team’s level of income.
£20k to £40k (mens’ teams usual fine) would be a bit much for a women’s side?
The second time in succession FA is deciding not to let things be, but has to stir stuff up again. Your ref made questionable decision, but to save face, FA has decided to double down on it. Just f’king let it be. Fans get over it soon enough.
same fixture(city vs us), same charge
fa = ‘fuck arsenal’ as many others have said on this site before
You know all you want in/from referees is consistency. Then, when that does not occur what you ask for from the authorities is, yes, you guessed it, consistency. Which is why these organisations are constantly having to explain themselves, because they are just infuriatingly inconsistent.
There’s the consistency we’ve been asking from refs and FA I guess. Consistently screw Arsenal 🤦
Why don’t arsenal fight this charge? This is stupid from the FA.
This anti-Arsenal agenda being implemented by the football bodies and the media is now way beyond a joke.
How about someone checking that ref whose perfect ‘first time pass’ and allowing play to continue that resulted in a Manchester City goal……?
Honestly, it makes me sick.
English referees are the best referees.
No wonder they command so much respect.
Sure, force us to take back willian while you are at it……
Can Arsenal protest, appeal or even attempt to fight these charges? Arsenal ladies DEFINITELY have a solid case and reason to protest! FA is a farce when it comes to making the right decision for both the game and player.
The FA are looking to add a few bob to the Xmas office party fund.
Ignoring the injustice arising from the referee’s incompetence, if no AWFC player was booked as a result of their remonstrations. What evidence can be brought against the Club to support this charge?
Ps Best wishes Viki. Another decent player who hasn’t had the best of fortune during her time at Arsenal.
As her contract runs out in June, presumably she will go on loan?
Footnote. The same ref was scheduled to officiate tonight’s game.
Can it be coincidence that this has been changed?🤫
So the FA have done something right then!!!
They’d probably say she’s come down with covid rather than the change was done because of Sunday’s debacle.
Curious to know how you found this out…
English refs are like American cops.
When one makes a mistake, they get defensive, band together and lash out at victims.
The reaction breeds mistrust, animosity and a loss of legitimacy that’s much more damaging to the game than simply saying “Yeah, we made a mistake.”
Another game against Man City, another bad ref, another charge surprise, surprise. Fight the charge, or pay the fine and make a club statement saying the players were justified because the reffing was crap