Chelsea football club would have to pay the English football association a sum of £25,000 for failing to control their players during a Premier League game between them and Liverpool.
The Premier League game which took place at Anfield Stadium on Saturday, August 28, 2021, almost went out of the control of the center referee, Anthony Taylor, especially towards the end of the first half.
The game was going smoothly until the additional minutes of the first half when Chelsea’s defender Reece James had to carry out a goal-line clearance. Unfortunately for the English football star, he committed a goal-line handball in the process.
James would have gotten away with it if the referee had not gone to the sideline monitor to review the incident. At the end of the review, referee Taylor confirmed that it was an intentional goal-line handball. Hence, the referee gave him a straight red card and awarded a penalty in favor of Liverpool.
Reece James‘ teammates were not happy with the decision and tried to convince the referee that the handball offense was not intentional. The process resulted in rowdy scenes.
In the process, the referee gave Chelsea’s defender, Antonio Rüdiger a yellow card for “dissent” which agitated the club’s players even more.
Afterward, the referee was able to bring everything under control and Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah went on to score the spot-kick to cancel out Kia Havertz’s 22nd-minute goal.
Immediately after Salah scored the spot-kick, Chelsea’s goalkeeper Edouard Mendy angrily kicked the ball against Liverpool’s Jordan Henderson. The referee could not stand the sight of that and had to show the goalkeeper a yellow card.
When the second half resumed, the coach of Chelsea, Thomas Tuchel decided to change the game plan to enable the team to cope with the 10-man team against Liverpool’s 11-man team. The club succeeded in doing so and left Anfield with a hard-earned draw.
After the 1-1 draw, some fans of Chelsea petitioned referee Anthony Taylor over how he managed the game. The fans believed that the referee always makes erroneous decisions against Chelsea. Hence, they wanted the referee to stay away from officiating Chelsea’s games.
Despite the agitation of the club’s fans, the English FA decided not to pay attention to it but emphasized the club’s failure to control their players.
After a disciplinary procedure, the English FA found fault in how Chelsea’s players behaved during the game. A statement the FA issued on Wednesday revealed that Chelsea admitted that they failed to control their players.
“Chelsea FC has been fined £25,000 for two breaches of FA Rule E20.1 which occurred during their Premier League fixture against Liverpool FC on Saturday 28 August 2021,” the FA statement read.
“The club admitted failing to ensure that its players conducted themselves in an orderly fashion during both the 48th minute of the first half and following the half-time whistle.”
Regulation and Discipline update on @ChelseaFC: pic.twitter.com/G5aYk58686
— FA Spokesperson (@FAspokesperson) September 8, 2021
As for Reece James, he would have to miss Chelsea’s Premier League game against Aston Villa on Saturday, September 11, 2021, due to the red card. The match will kick off at 17:30.
At the time of publishing this report, Chelsea were yet to make any official statement concerning the fine.
