Five days have passed since Paul Lambert was unfairly fined £8,000 by the Football Association following comments he made in a post-match interview after the Chelsea game at Stamford Bridge.
My first thought on Paul Lambert’s fine was that managers of teams inside the top six criticise the referees frequently when decisions don’t go their way and they don’t win games. These managers do not get hit with fines. So why was Lambert fined? Why did the FA decide to pick on him and, by extension, Aston Villa?
A statement was released by the FA regarding Lambert’s fine. Here is what their officials had to say:
“Following an Independent Regulatory Commission hearing, Aston Villa manager Paul Lambert has been fined 8,000 pounds in relation to post-match media comments he made after his side’s game against Chelsea on 21 August 2013… The misconduct charge, which Lambert admitted, was that the comments implied the match referee was motivated by bias, and/or brought the game into disrepute, in contravention of FA Rule E3(1).”
This is fair enough: if the FA have a set of rules then every manager should abide by them. However, this is not how the FA functions. Too often, it seems that one set of rules apply for one manager and another set of rules to a manager of a ‘big’ team.
Let’s compare Lambert’s comments on Kevin Friend with the comments Arsene Wenger made about referee Anthony Taylor following Arsenal’s 3-1 loss to Aston Villa.
Paul Lambert speaking about Kevin Friend post-match (21/08/13):
“I think it’s there for everybody to see, it’s clearly an elbow on Christian, I think it’s a sending-off and the referee is in the vicinity to do it, and the penalty I think is a penalty.
He has missed two huge moments, I saw at the time. How you can miss that magnitude of decision is beyond me.”
Arsene Wenger talking about Anthony Taylor (17/08/13):
“I didn’t like his performance, but more than his performance, I didn’t like his spirit of how he refereed the game.
I didn’t like the fact the way the game was refereed and this is a deeper question than just one decision. I don’t like to lie; I didn’t like what he did.
The linesman said to me did not give the penalty and he was at the level of the tackle. So why does the referee who did not give the penalty straightaway suddenly give the penalty? That is what is amazing to me.
I would understand if the linesman said it was a penalty, but you have to live with that.”
Correct me if I am wrong but don’t the FA’s rules state that a manager cannot claim that a referee has brought the game into disrepute? Wenger’s comments about Anthony Taylor are not only criticising the referee but are also highlighting that he got a key decision wrong, which is exactly what Paul Lambert was emphasising in his comments about Kevin Friend.
It is clear for all to see that the FA are very biased when it comes to how they deal with managers of certain teams in the press. Wenger was not fined for his comments about Anthony Taylor when he should have been and Lambert was fined £8,000 for arguably being a lot less critical of a referee.
The FA need to shape up and start treating every Premier League manager in the same way. They are all competing in the same league so why should each manager be treated differently? I would urge them to stop this form of corruption and make sure that there is a level playing field for every club.
Sorry but your leaving out a little of what Lambert said to support your view, the fa statement clearly states that the fine was for sayin the ref had some sort of bias towards 1 team and brought the game in2 disrepute, Lambert said if the penalty claim was in the other end that the ref would hav gave it! What Lambert said was true but your not allowed say the truth unfortunately.
I do believe that Lambert’s fine was justified when he said something along the lines of “if the situation was for the other team, it would have gone their way”.
I also believe Arsene Wenger could have been punished when he said the things you quoted in the article.
I agree, there is probably a bias towards the bigger teams. just take Ferguson for example. one of the greatest club managers to ever apply his trade in the country, but every time his team lost, you can always expect him to demean the officiating, and he was rarely punished for these actions.