Nottingham Forest on Monday lost its appeal against Video Assistant Referee Stuart Attwell who fined the club £750,000 for a social media post criticising the VAR.
Forest according were fined by the Football Association in October, for an “attack on the integrity of a match official on an unparalleled scale”.
Forest’s post said they had “warned” referees’ body Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) that Attwell, who was the VAR for the match, was a fan of relegation rivals Luton, but that “they did not change him”, adding: “Our patience has been tested multiple times.”
In October Forest said the fine was “disproportionate”, but on Monday the FA said an appeal board had upheld the sanction.
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“In our view, a heavy penalty was entirely merited for this very serious offence,” the board said in its written reasons.
“An aggravating feature of the offence was that the tweet was viewed by millions of people. In short, it went ‘viral’. This was predictable and no doubt intended.
“It was also predictable that it would cause great distress to the match officials and their families.”
Defeat by Everton left Forest one point ahead of Luton, although they ended the season in 17th – six points clear of the relegation zone. Luton were relegated.
In the 2024/2025 season, Forest are third in the table with 10 matches of this season remaining.
