Nottingham Forest owner, Evangelos Marinakis, has been handed a five-match stadium ban for “improper conduct” after he was 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 October 18, with the full written judgement released on October 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.”
Source:dailyguidenetwork.com