derby county

Derby County have been fined by the Football Association for a second time this season, once again they were charged with ‘failing to control their players’, on this occasion the charge refers to the Championship game against Swansea at Pride Park on February 20th.

County had denied the charge but were found guilty at a disciplinary hearing. The club were fined £50,000.

Swansea were also fined for their part in the melee, but their fine was only £15,000 with half of that suspended.

Derby were found guilty of the same charge involving their two matches against local rivals Nottingham Forest earlier this season and have already been fined £65,000 on those counts.

The Commission chairman stated:

“The Commission was deeply concerned that this was the third occasion in a period of eight months that Derby County FC have been charged with a similar offence. Furthermore, the Commission felt the incident could have easily been avoided by stronger restraint from players from both clubs.”

Despite Wayne Rooney showing signs of frustration with his team mates during the game, he did manage to control himself impeccably in front of the referee and only the continual booing of John Terry let some members of the crowd down.

The FA’s two latest films ‘Are You Losing it?‘ address the issues of anti social behaviour in the form of abusive behaviour from fans  at a match and also an over bearing adult screaming and shouting at his child from the touchline.

The Football Association say that they are making progress in their Respect Campaign with an increase in the number of qualified and trainee referees this season, a drop in the number of dissent cautions throughout the Football League in all divisions and referee assaults down by 25%.

The Respect programme has become a compulsory module in the FA’s training courses for all new referees and coaches coming into the game each season.

On the down side there is still much work to be done; 800 grassroots games were abandoned in 2008/09 season due to player or spectator misconduct and 1 in 4 parents would not consider confronting an offensive spectator for fear of physical retaliation.

You can help further improve the game by joining The FA Respect Campaign here.