FA issue statement to confirm Nottingham Forest's punishment for explosive comments made after Everton match

The FA have decided on a punishment for Nottingham Forest over a series of posts they made on Twitter after April's 2-0 defeat at Everton.

Forest felt they had been denied three clear penalties at Goodison Park, and in an unprecedented move, their official club account directly called out the Premier League and PGMOL on Twitter.

One of the posts was aimed at Stuart Attwell, who was on VAR duty that day, with Forest claiming they had informed the Premier League that he was a fan of Luton - their relegation rivals at the time.

Soon after the posts were sent, the FA announced they would conduct an investigation.

And now, almost six months on from the initial posts, they have decided on a punishment.

The FA have deemed that Forest committed misconduct through their posts, and have fined them a total of £750,000.

In addition, Forest have been told to remove the offending posts in question, and to provide a public apology to Attwell and the FA. A warning has been issued for misconduct.

Forest denied that the comments questioned the integrity of the officials involved in the match, or that they implied bias.

An FA statement reads: "Nottingham Forest have been fined £750,000 and warned for misconduct in relation to comments posted on social media after their Premier League game against Everton on Sunday 21 April.

"The club denied that the comments posted on social media imply bias and/or question the integrity of the match officials and/or the assistant referee and/or bring the game into disrepute.

"An Independent Regulatory Commission found the charge to be proven following a hearing and imposed the club's sanctions."

In response, Forest stated that they are 'extremely disappointed' with what they believe to be a 'wholly disproportionate' sanction, and confirm they plan to appeal.

The statement reads: "Nottingham Forest Football Club is extremely disappointed with the decision of the Regulatory Commission to impose a £750,000 fine in relation to comments posted on social media following our Premier League fixture against Everton on Sunday 21 April.

"We are particularly concerned that the FA, in its submissions, sought a sanction 'in excess of £1,000,000'. We believe that this request, along with the subsequent fine, is wholly disproportionate and the Club will be appealing the decision."

Following the posts, the then-Forest refereeing consultant Mark Clattenburg described the decisions as a 'hat-trick of howlers' and 'mind-boggling to watch'. He resigned from his role days later.

PGMOL chief Howard Webb later confirmed that one of the decisions - not to award a penalty for a foul on Callum Hudson-Odoi by Everton's Ashley Young - was retrospectively incorrect. PGMOL apologised to Forest for the incorrect decision.

Speaking on 'Match Officials Mic'd Up' in May, Webb explained: "The referee waves away the penalty appeal, and the VAR looks at it and asks himself whether the award was clearly and obviously wrong. He came to the conclusion it wasn't.

Howard Webb explains the following decisions on Match Officials Mic'd Up:

Hudson-Odoi's penalty appeal v Everton
An incident between Wissa and Dunk
Wolves' Chirewa's offside against West Ham
Spurs' penalty for Rice's foul on Davies
Burnley's penalty for Onana's foul on Amdouni

— Premier League (@premierleague) April 30, 2024

"He doesn't see a clear action by Young that he considers to be worthy of intervention, or one that reaches the threshold of being very clear.

"But we would have preferred intervention, for the referee to go to the monitor and make a judgment for himself in that situation. We would probably have come out with a different outcome had that happened."