Chelsea have been fined £325,000 and West Ham £300,000 over a “mass confrontation” between players during their Premier League game in January.
The incident at Stamford Bridge started when Chelsea forward Joao Pedro reacted to West Ham winger Adama Traore’s shove on Blues defender Marc Cucurella in added time.
Both sets of players came together in ugly scenes and, following a lengthy video assistant referee (VAR) check, Hammers defender Jean-Clair Todibo was shown a straight red card by referee Anthony Taylor for grabbing Joao Pedro by the neck.
“It was alleged that Chelsea FC failed to ensure its players didn’t behave in an improper and/or provocative way around the 95th minute,” said an Football Association statement., external
“It was also alleged that West Ham United FC failed to ensure its players didn’t behave in an improper and/or provocative and/or violent way at this time.
“Both clubs subsequently admitted the charges against them.”
In imposing the fines, an independent regulatory commission took the fact that both clubs had committed previous breaches of FA Rule E20.1 into account.
The rule states that there should be no behaviour that is “improper, offensive, violent, threatening, abusive, indecent, insulting or provocative”.
