Nottingham Forest owner found guilty of spitting near referee

Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis has been given a five-match stadium ban for “inappropriate conduct” after he was found guilty of spitting at referee Josh Smith’s feet in the tunnel following their defeat to Fulham.

Marinakis denied the FA’s allegations at his hearing but was suspended on 18 October and the full written verdict was published on 22 October. Forest appealed Marinakis’ suspension but he was absent from their 1-0 win over Crystal Palace. on Monday at the City Ground.

In the FA charge, the quote attributed to referee Smith reads: “As I walked down the tunnel at the end of the match, Mr Evangelos Marinakis, the owner of Nottingham Forest, was standing to my left at the end of the tunnel. As I walked past him, he spat on the floor next to my left foot. “It was also seen by (assistant referee) James Mainwaring and (fourth official) Tim Robinson.”

Marinakis, in his defense, said he was coughing. The defense said: “He smokes 2 or 3 cigars a day. He often has to cough and/or cough. His cough contains phlegm. If he has to spit, he spits into a napkin if he has one, or on the floor if he doesn’t have one. Sometimes when he coughs, saliva or phlegm may end up on the floor.

“On the day of the incident he was suffering from a hacking cough. He took lozenges. As the police approached, he felt a cough coming on and coughed on the floor, down and to the right, away from the path the officials were taking. I’ll take it.

“He didn’t talk to the judges. He can’t remember now whether any saliva came out of his mouth, but if it did (and he doesn’t dispute that some may well have done so), it certainly wasn’t directed at the referee’s feet or hit no one.” .

“He does not understand that coughing (where anyone can cough up saliva or phlegm) onto the floor in a relatively crowded tunnel is a misdemeanor.”

In response, referee Smith says that he did not see Marinakis cough when he was standing at the end of the tunnel. Having reviewed the footage, the FA said in a statement: “We consider that the footage does not support the suggestion that Marinakis was coughing. Usually, if someone is going to cough, common decency requires that the person cover their mouth.”

“We are sure that Marinakis would have covered his mouth if he was going to cough when someone was approaching in the opposite direction. Alternatively, he could look away. In our opinion, the footage does not show that he turned away at all.”

The FA subsequently suspended him for five matches.

News of Marinakis’ suspension on Friday last week came on the same day Forest manager Nuno Espirito Santo was handed a three-match touchline ban and fined £55,000 for misconduct in Forest’s 2-2 draw in September. with Brighton.

Midfielder Morgan Gibbs-White was also suspended for the match and fined £20,000 for acting “inappropriately and/or using abusive and/or insulting words towards the fourth official after being sent off” in the same match. He missed Monday’s win over Palace.