Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis’ five-match stadium ban for “improper conduct” came because of him being found guilty of spitting at the feet of referee Josh Smith in the tunnel after their defeat to Fulham.
Marinakis denied the FA charge at his hearing, but was hit with the suspension on Oct. 18, with the full written judgement released on Oct. 22. Forest appealed Marinakis’ ban, but he was absent from their 1-0 win over Crystal Palace on Monday at the City Ground.
In the FA charge, a quote attributed to referee Smith said: “As I walked down the tunnel at the end of the match, Mr Evangelos Marinakis, the owner of Nottingham Forest was stood on my left hand side at the end of the tunnel. As I walked past him, he spat on the floor next to my left foot. This was also seen by [assistant referee] James Mainwaring and [fourth official] Tim Robinson.”
Marinakis, in his defence, said he coughed. The defence read: “He smokes 2 or 3 cigars a day. He often needs to expectorate and/or coughs. His coughs contain phlegm. If he has to spit, he spits in a tissue if one is available or on the floor if he does not have one available. Sometimes when he coughs spit or phlegm can go to the floor.
“On the day of the incident he was suffering from a hacking cough. He was taking lozenges. As the officials approached he felt a cough coming and he coughed on the floor, down and to his right which was away from the path the officials were taking.
“He did not speak to the officials. He cannot now remember if any spittle left his mouth but if it did [and he does not challenge that some might well have done] it certainly was not aimed at the referee’s feet and did not hit anybody.
“He fails to see how coughing [where spit or phlegm can come out from any person] towards the floor in a relatively crowded tunnel is misconduct.”
In response, the referee Smith says he did not see Marinakis cough when he was stood at the end of the tunnel. Having reviewed footage, the FA statement said: “We are of the view that the footage does not support the suggestion that Marinakis coughed. Typically, if someone was about to cough, common decency demands that one covers one’s mouth.
“We are sure that Marinakis would have covered his mouth if he was about to cough as someone was approaching in the opposite direction. Alternatively, he could have turned away. In our view the footage does not suggest he turned away at all.”
Subsequently, the FA issued him with a five-match ban.
The news of Marinakis’ ban on Friday last week came the same day as Forest manager Nuno Espírito Santo was hit with a three-match touchline ban and £55,000 fine for misconduct in Forest’s 2-2 draw with Brighton in September.
Midfielder Morgan Gibbs-White was also banned for a match and fined £20,000 after acting “in an improper manner and/or used abusive and/or insulting words towards the fourth official after being sent off” in the same match. He sat out Monday’s win over Palace.
