Portsmouth and Birmingham City slapped with significant FA fines after ‘mass confrontation’ at Fratton Park
Pompey and Birmingham City have been handed significant fines by the FA after a mass final-day confrontation at Fratton Park.
Pompey and Birmingham City have both been slapped with significant fines following a ‘mass confrontation’ on the final day of the season at Fratton Park.
The FA have confirmed the Blues have been handed a financial penalty of £53,125, while Brum outfit have been fined £85,000.
The controversy came in the closing stages of the PO4 contest. Birmingham City were left irate when Adrian Segecic latched onto the ball following a mix-up at the back by Chris Davies’ side, after Ibane Bowat handed possession back to the visitors following a stop in play because of an injury.
However, it sparked huge uproar from defenders Bright Osayi-Samuel and Phil Neumen as well as goalkeeper James Beadle, who reacted angrily to the Pompey forward’s actions.
What followed was a mass altercation between both sets of players on the pitch as well as coaching staff in the technical area.
Referee John Brooks then proceeded to dish out bookings to Segecic and Osayi-Samuel as well as both John Mousinho and opposite number Davies.
After both clubs admitted to the charge on May 11, an independent disciplinary commission have since imposed financial sanction following a hearing last month.
The Blues have been slapped with a £53,125 fine, while Birmingham’s have been penalised £85,000.
The disciplinary commission’s final report stated Pompey ha apdologised to them and the FA for the incident.
What did Pompey boss John Mousinho say after the mass confrontation?
In fact, the head coach called the man-in-the-middle’s display a ‘disgrace’ as he blasted the incident.
The Blues boss The News at the time: ‘With the Birmingham player down and we had the ball, there was a lot of noise that it was a head injury, which it wasn’t so the game wasn’t stopped.
‘Possession got turned over, Birmingham then had a counter attack and decided not to put the ball out because they had a dangerous attack, which is fine but could’ve done if they wanted to.
‘Once the game died down, the referee decided to stop it and Birmingham put the ball out.
‘Our instructions to the lads was to throw the ball back to Birmingham, give the ball back and we did exactly that to the right back and it just completely stopped.
‘I’m not entirely sure what Segs is supposed to do, just retreat to the six-yard box?
‘So Osayi-Samuel just stops, Beadle just starts walking so at that point the ball is in play, let's go.
‘I thought Segs was well within his right to do what he did, I thought the response to that was an absolute disgrace and I thought the referee handled it really, really poorly.
‘So there’s five Birmingham players who go for Segs. My understanding of the laws, actually forget the laws, I want my player to be protected and he wasn’t protected at all in the moment.
‘Next thing I turn around and Birmingham’s entire bench is in my technical area. I didn’t think that was allowed but apparently we can do what we want.
‘I got booked for some reason, I don’t know what I was supposed to do, just keep retreating? And Segs gets booked as well.
‘I spoke to the referee after the game and he completely disagreed with me but I thought it was a really poor moment.’