Wednesday, October 9, 2024

Arsenal hit with yet another FA charge

So far this season Arsenal have been hit with four FA charges for ‘failing to control players’, for incidents in the games against Manchester City, Newcastle, Oxford United in the FA Cup, and Leeds United.

On top of that, analyst Miguel Molina was charged this week with improper/violent conduct following a coming together with Aston Villa counterpart Victor Manas during our 4-2 win over Unai Emery’s side in February.

Thus far, the club have paid £125,000 in fines, and now face another charge for what the the FA describe as a deliberate decision not to fully cooperate with Premier League rules on media commitments.

The section in the FA handbook reads as follows:

Before 31 July each year, each Club must confirm to the League whether, in respect of each League Match throughout the Season:

K.126.1. each of the Players listed on its team sheet will walk through the Mixed Zone when exiting the Stadium following the League Match; or

K.126.2. a minimum of six of the Players listed on the team sheet will walk through the Mixed Zone when exiting the Stadium following the League Match and the Club will ensure that each Broadcaster in attendance in the Mixed Zone is able to interview at least one such Player.

K.127. Having made the election referred to at Rule K.126, above, each Club must ensure that it complies with its chosen approach at each League Match.

Arseblog News understands that at the beginning of the campaign, the club confirmed that a minimum of six players would carry out these duties for each home game.

However, it is alleged that on multiple occasions fewer than six players passed through the Mixed Zone, with one home game cited when just two were available for post-game broadcasters.

This led to a situation when one of those players, Ben White, had to do multiple interviews with various outlets. There was a lot of online enjoyment of the defender’s dead-pan responses to questions when one clip was shared on Twitter, but this is in part due to the fact this was his 11th interview and he was fed up as the delay caused him to miss an important appointment at his local tanning salon.

An Arsenal source told us, “There is definitely a feeling inside the club that someone is out to get us.

“It’s one thing when players get a bit carried away in the heat of an important game, but this is beyond the pale. It’s crazy to think that one broadcaster – and we think we know who it is because he’s been complaining publicly about us and our manager all season – could potentially have such a significant impact on our season.

“While once or twice the numbers were not where they should have been, and we accept that, the players and the manager have fulfilled all their media duties without complaint this season.

“We will fight this … hard.”

While any punishment is likely to come in the form of another fine, there is the outside possibility that a points deduction could be imposed.

There isn’t a great deal of precedent, but in the 2001-2 La Liga season, Racing Santander’s then chairman, Miguel-Angel Mentiras called Spanish rights holders Canal+ “bastard sons of piss-drinking bitches”, and refused to sanction the release of his players for media duty.

They were subsequently fined €100,000 and docked two points, narrowly escaping relegation on the final day by virtue of a last minute winner against a Levante side that featured on loan Arsenal striker Stathis Tavlaridis.

There’s no doubt the FA have got their sights trained on Arsenal this season, but we’ll just keep fingers crossed that there are no further charges between now and the end of this exciting season.

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Aran

Wink wink nudge nudge

Funsho Patrick

😂 beginning to sound like fiction right?

Daveo

Nothing to see here…

aprilfool

Bit early this side of the Atlantic lol

Daveo

Bit early in Ireland too. Blogs mighta been having a few Jameson’s until the wee hours…

PeteyB

This one is awfully close to reality. I was taken in for a long while.

Andy

Haha – but yet this could be so true

C.B.

VAR has already deducted points from us…

SizC

It’s a shame. I see FA charges like a badge of honour. Every time we get one, it reassures me that we are heading in the right direction.

Cobwebs

Unbelievable. I don’t like conspiracy theories, but the FA eeally are out to get us, however they can. Can we sue them or something?

Post January Blip

Nice try, Blogs 😉

Tucker

Frankly laughable at this point.

Tucker

You fucker hahaha

Obi Wan Iwobi

Is it April 1 already?

Prashant

Not this year Blogs, not again !

Iain

Hahaah excellent. Fight the charges!!!!!

Prakhar

This article is way too real to register as a joke article, that it is.

Doctor Perceptron

Says a lot about how we’ve been treated this season by the FA and media that I fully believed this until visiting the comments. Very well crafted post Blogs!

Gathiita

Daaaaaaamn r. Blogggggggggs hahahahahahahah

Hi-brid

Boom! 🤣

Point Percy at the porcelain

Almost as unbelievable as the idea that, as England captain, you’d stay at one club all your career and win absolutely nothing at all, whilst having the opportunity to move to virtually any other club you choose and win medals aplenty. Ridiculous huh!!

DublinGooner

Ridiculously Sp*rsy

Gunner08

Happy April fools day blogs 🥳🥳🥳

Rushguy55

I almost fell for this, then I checked my calendar 🤣🤣🤣. It didn’t help that I’m in Canada and we’re 5hrs behind though. Chapeau Blogs!!!

Mentalista

Got me until the points deduction bit! Mentiras!

Redbaron

Up there with the best ones you have come up with for the occassion.

King 14enry

I always enjoy your annual April Fools Day post. The thought and time that you put into them is genuinely applaudable. Unfortunately, no matter how much time and effort you put into it, this year’s joke was always going to fall short of the standards set by the FA. They have turned themselves into the biggest joke around with fine after fine. Show passion? That’s a fine. Get upset about a decision that’s later proved to be incorrect? That’s a fine too. Have fun? You know it – FINED. F*ck the FA, here’s to hoping for 3 more points today… Read more »

Chidi

It’s amazing and distressing at the same time how this could easily be true. The FA seems to mean f#”@ Arsenal

I just left the bathroom after taking a piss. I might have let out a fart or two, but I’m not sure as I was half asleep. Does the FA accept fines in Nigerian Naira?

mungo malalatte

Got news for you guys, this is NOT an April Fool. There is serious talk of a points deduction which would give the league to City for our persistent breaking of the rules. High-level meetings between the FA, the Premier League and the owners of Manchester City have been going on for some weeks now to find a solution to the problem and this is what they’ve come up with.

Pavan Jagarlapudi

You went too far with the tanning salon! I believed it until then, please dont joke about points deduction, my heart can’t take it!

btw

The tanning salon seems pretty likely to me 👱🏽‍♂️

allezkev

It’s a conspiracy Blogs, we must fight this and what about poor Ben White, no wonder he fell out with the England coaches, they’re all out to get us the bloody FA, a right bunch of fools…

Ashburton

Well played, Sir! Believed it for far longer than I’d like to admit.

Matty T.

Nice try, Blogs, but as you well know, Stathis Tavlaridis was a defender, not a striker. Funnily enough though, his father Nikos was a genuine striker, leading the Greek cab drivers in the General Strike against social welfare reforms of May 17th, 2001, only a few months before Stathis moved to Arsenal from Iraklis Thessaloniki.

Espen

Happy April’s fool day.

AusT

Lol good effort!

Eric Blair

Santander wouldn’t have ever survived without our boy Tavlaridis banging them in the back-end of that season. There was one game where he single-handedly destroyed Getafe with a brace and two assists, celebrating by lifting up his shirt to reveal a life-sized tattoo of the the Madonna on this body.

He earned legendary status that day and rumour has it there is a shrine to him hidden deep in the bowels of the El Sardinero where fans pay homage every year on April 1st in honour of ‘El milagro griego’.

Artem

Tavlaridis was a defender!

GraeB

Now that really is a joke!!!

John

Almost had me there!

Jimboy

Read the first line and knew it was April fools… Good job Andrew 🤣

Dr Nick Riviera

You had me right up until ‘Tanning Salon’

Russ

In bed, 7:43am and I’d started to get outraged for a moment there! Ha ha, happy 1st of April one and all.

Here’s to three points today and all the players giving post match interviews 😆🤦‍♂️

Okester

D’oh!
Totally had me ‘til I reached the comments It was no more ridiculous than any of the other FA charge stories I’d read all season, so no reason to be suspicious .

Joeza

You had me right till the Ben White doing 11 interviews… No way he does half of those.

GraeB

I hadn’t actually appreciated that the Mixed Zone is a real thing for sporting events Just read that Usain Bolt once took 3 hours to get through the zone because of all the phone calls he was being joined in on.

Chapeau

Yeah. I saw the heading and immediately thought “this must be it.” That it wasn’t written by AAllen confirmed it for me.
Nice try Blogs

Man Manny

I kept reading and getting increasingly pissed off with the FA with every line until today’s date flashed somewhere in my mind and it dawned on me I was being fooled! After last year, I has sworn I’ll be on guard this year. Well, here I am.

Rufusstan

You got me with this, until I started reading the comments. The sad thing is that the way things have been going this could very easily be true

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