Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis has been handed a five-match ban for spitting on the floor as match officials walked past him in the tunnel following his side’s 1-0 home defeat to Fulham last month, Afrosport reports .
An independent regulatory commission found Marinakis guilty of “inexcusably displaying disrespectful behaviour” towards the match officials in the Premier League matchday six fixture against Fulham at the City Ground.
In its published ruling, the independent regulatory commission stated that the Forest owner’s disrespectful behaviour could fuel further disrespect towards match officials.
The incident seemed to have been fuelled by Forest losing their unbeaten start to the season after VAR awarded a penalty in favour of Fulham.
Match officials, which included referee Josh Smith, assistant referee James Mainwaring and fourth official Tim Robinson in their separate match reports said they saw Marinakis spit on the floor in their direction on their way to the dressing room.
In defence, Marinakis said the incident was unintentional and his coughing was as a result of his smoking of cigars earlier in the day.
The commission, however, rejected his defence, stating that the CCTV footage of the tunnel corroborated with the match official’s claims.
According to the commission, Marinakis deliberately spat in a disrespectful and disgusting display of contempt towards the match officials, a serious misconduct that warranted severe punishment to serve as a deterrent.
Marinakis plea for a more lenient punishment was met with deaf ears as the commission dismissed his appeals.
The 57-year-old missed Forest’s win against Crystal Palace on Monday, their first home win since April, and will also not be permitted to attend matches against Leicester City, West Ham, Newcastle United and Arsenal.
