The English Football Association has charged Premier League defending champions, Manchester City over two months after the club’s fans invaded the pitch on the last matchday of the 2021-2022 Premier League season.
In the said season, Manchester City and Liverpool went toe to toe to fight for the Premier League title. The fight dragged on until the very last league game of the season. At that point, Manchester City needed to lose their last league game while Liverpool needed to win theirs to be crowned champions.
While Liverpool were beating Wolves 3-1 at the Anfield stadium on May 22, Manchester City were struggling with Aston Villa at the Etihad Stadium until in the 81st minute when Gündoğan scored the game and the league decider. The 3-2 win over Aston Villa was enough to help Manchester City stop Liverpool from overtaking them.
Interestingly, Manchester City scored three goals in five minutes to ensure that they sealed the victory and gave Liverpool no chance to stop them from winning their fourth Premier League title in five seasons.
The 3-2 victory confirmed Manchester City as the winner of the 2021-2022 Premier League title with just a point above Liverpool. Hence, some City fans were overwhelmed with joy that they had to invade the pitch.
Reports claimed that Aston Villa goalkeeper, Robin Olsen suffered a physical attack suspected at the hands of City’s fans during the invasion. Also, the invaders broke one of the crossbars at the Etihad Stadium.
Hence, after investigating the incident, the English FA had to charge Manchester City over the club’s fans’ invasion of the pitch. The Premier League reigning champions have until August 25, 2022, to respond to the charge.
A statement from the English FA read: “It is alleged that after the final whistle of this fixture that Manchester City failed to ensure that its spectators – and all persons purporting to be its supporters or followers – conducted themselves in an orderly fashion and refrained from using threatening and/or violent behavior whilst encroaching onto the pitch.”
Before now, the Greater Manchester Police had announced that it was still investigating several offenses, including criminal damage that emanated from the pitch invasion.
Also, in May 2022, the English FA in conjunction with the Greater Manchester Police charged two people involved in the pitch invasion.
At the time of publishing this report, Manchester City were yet to react to the charge against the club. The club is focused on their next Premier League game which is against Newcastle United on Sunday, August 21, 2022. The match will kick off at 16:30 at St James’ Park Stadium.
Meanwhile, Chelsea are investigating allegations that Tottenham’s Son Heung-min was racially abused at Stamford Bridge during this season’s first London derby on August 14.
In the Premier League game which ended in a 2-2 draw at Stamford Bridge, a group of yet-to-be-identified Chelsea fans allegedly abused Son Heung-min racially when he went to take a corner kick.
The incident has been reported to Chelsea and the club has started investigating the discriminatory behavior which the club said is “totally abhorrent”.
Chelsea’s statement added: “Chelsea FC has consistently made its zero tolerance position on discriminatory behavior very clear, yet there are still idiots like this that attach themselves to this club as so-called ‘fans’, which shames Chelsea FC, our coaches, players, staff and our true supporters.
“We are investigating this incident and, if identified, this individual will face the strongest action from the club.
“It has no place at Chelsea or in any of our communities.”
Club statement on racist abuse.
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) August 18, 2022
Any fan found guilty of racism in the Premier League risks being banned from the match venue where he committed the crime for life.
