Birmingham City have been fined £42,500 for an incident that saw a fan run onto the pitch and assault Jack Grealish last season – and many Leeds fans are fuming.
The fan punched Aston Villa’s Grealish in the head, knocking him over, and he was then hauled off the pitch by stewards and arrested.
Paul Mitchell, 27, was sentenced to 14 weeks in prison and banned from football grounds for 10 years for the attack.
Sky Sports reported the news on Tuesday afternoon.
Birmingham City have been fined £42,500 for an incident which saw a spectator run onto the St Andrew's pitch and attack Aston Villa's Jack Grealish in March.
Full story: https://t.co/Ev745LSaVh pic.twitter.com/bzxHSIN1gN
— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) September 17, 2019
Leeds fans can’t believe that the EFL has let Birmingham off so leniently after they were fined £200,000 for the spygate scandal, when a member of Marcelo Bielsa’s staff was spotted outside the Derby training ground ahead of the Championship clash between the two teams.
Bielsa then admitted sending staff to watch all the teams he was due to play train.
There was no specific rule against the conduct and the Leeds staff watched the training sessions from a public place.
However, they were fined £200,000 and given a severe reprimand over their behavior. [Telegraph]
Many Leeds fans have taken to Twitter in disgust – here are the best reactions:
However, standing on public land near a training ground warrants a £200,000 fine. The football league's corrupt @EFL #LUFC https://t.co/OHu9evPKIz
— Sam Clark (@samclark1986) September 17, 2019
£200,000 for a rule that didn't exist. £42,500 for an assault by a fan live on TV which could've been a much more serious than it was. #lufc #LeedsUnited #ALAW https://t.co/ubulp8lKpD
— We All Talk Leeds (@WeAllTalkLeeds) September 17, 2019
Two Leeds fans called out the EFL for being ‘corrupt’. One said, “And Leeds get a £200k fine for a man standing on public property! EFL is corrupt. So is assault more acceptable now?”
It’s easy to have sympathy with Leeds fans about this. The £200,000 fine seemed over-the-top, but there is a difference between the two incidents. In the Leeds example, the EFL were punishing a club for something it had actively done.
In the case of Birmingham, they were being punished for something a fan had done – and it’s extremely hard for clubs to stop fans getting on the pitch.
The incident was extremely serious, though, and it could have been much worse.
However, it’s hard to say that the EFL go easy on Birmingham after they were docked nine points in March for breaching financial fair play rules.
@LUFC fined 200k for watching a training session ?? #lufc https://t.co/tRQ9OND8xW
— Pricey$ (@Priceyleeds88) September 17, 2019
And £200,000 for #lufc for looking through a fence! Crazy
— Stuart (@StuartofLeeds) September 17, 2019
We got fined 200k for being on a public footpath #LUFC #EFL https://t.co/ytHftsRTZI
— Luke (@Townend1919) September 17, 2019
https://twitter.com/coulegg/status/1173965466026565633
Actual assault…. what was we fined for spygate again??? #lufc ? https://t.co/lcnyvzp17H
— Ryan Standell (@RyanStandell9) September 17, 2019
The spygte scandal was a huge story last season but it seemed to generate way more headlines than it should have done.
While Frank Lampard was saying that Leeds and Bielsa had breached rules of fair play, Derby were getting ready to sell their own stadium back to its own owners to offset against financial fair play.
Leeds owner Andrea Radrizzani said that Derby were guilty of cheating more than his club had over spygate.
Derby are now under investigation from the EFL and Leeds fans will be particularly interested in what, if any, sanctions are levied against their Championship rivals.
The narrative that the EFL is against them could gather more force if nothing is done.