The Football Association (FA) has fined Leicester City £20,000 after their players surrounded a match official in their Premier League defeat to Aston Villa last week.
Villa won 2-1 at the King Power Stadium thanks to goals from Amadou Onana and Jhon Duran, with Facundo Buonanotte scoring a late goal for the home side.
The punishment, which Leicester have accepted, was handed down after the club “failed to ensure their players did not behave in an improper way” in the 93rd minute of the match.
Nine players were shown a yellow card in the match as well as Leicester boss Steve Cooper and his assistant Alan Tate for remonstrating with referee David Coote at half-time.
— FA Spokesperson (@FAspokesperson) September 5, 2024
Leicester had a penalty appeal turned down by Coote after a Youri Tielemans’ challenge on Jamie Vardy inside the Villa penalty area as Leicester chased an equaliser. The Tielemans’ challenge appeared to kick the ball into touch, only for Coote to award Villa the throw-in.
“I think everybody in this stadium would have got booked if he (Coote) could have got round to it,” Leicester boss Cooper said after the match.
“I’ve just accepted that the refereeing is where it is. I’ve done it before, I’ve said things and ended up being jumped on and getting fined and all of that sort of stuff in front of the panels. But I’m not going to do that.”
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Leicester, who have one point from their opening three Premier League matches, return to action on September 14 with a trip to Crystal Palace.
(Stephen White – CameraSport via Getty Images)
