Biggest Football Punishments Ever

Even the biggest clubs and star players can get fines by the football organizations. There can be different reasons for receiving a fine or a ban from playing from misbehaving fans to breaking the Financial Fair Play rules. In the biggest football punishments ever we collected the most intriguing ones with the biggest fines. 

To keep the rules is important in football as well, unless you could pay serious money for breaking them. Clubs can be sanctioned in other ways as well. Like playing games behind closed doors or banning them from taking part in different tournaments. As it just happened with Manchester City most recently, who received a 2-year ban from European competitions. Plus a €30 million fine for breaking the Financial Fair Play rules. But City wasn’t the first club in history to receive a big punishment. Let’s see the others and the most common reasons. 

Huge fines and stadium bans in the biggest football punishments ever

Clubs and even national football associations can receive fines for racist chants by their fans. Just like the Bulgarian Football Union did. They were fined €75,000 and received a one-game stadium ban after their fans used racist chants on a Euro2020 qualifying game against England. Unfortunately, similar incidents have happened in many other countries as well. 

One of the most notorious countries is Italy, where even different objects, like bananas can be thrown at the players. That’s what happened in an Atalanta-Milan game in 2014, when the home fans targeted Milan’s black players. The club received a €40,000 fine for their actions. But things didn’t change too much since. As two Roman clubs, Lazio and AS Roma were both fined at the end of last year for racist chants by the fans. Hopefully everyone will concentrate on football at the weekends in the next Serie A games. 

Fines received for uncontrolled players

Tension and small fights can happen during big football derbies. But if players are going too far, and mass brawls erupt, the leagues can also punish the clubs for their players’ behaviors. Like the FA did after a Chelsea-Tottenham Hotspurs game in 2016, when nine Spurs players received a yellow card by the end of the game. It was a heated game during the whole 90 minutes, with bad tackles, Costa being grabbed at his neck, late challenges and even coins thrown at the players by the fans. The most shocking scene was caused by Spurs player Mousa Dembele who gouged Diego Costa’s eye at a scuffle before half-time. Both clubs were hit with massive fines, Chelsea had to pay £375,000 while Spurs fine was £225,000 as online sportsbook news in the UK were reporting. 

Breaking the financial fair play rules can have serious consequences

The punishments for breaking the rules of Financial Fair Play can be devastating for the clubs. It can affect smaller clubs as well. The English club of QPR has received a massive, £40 million fine for breaking the legislation in the 2013/14 season. The club was punished because  their turnover was half of their wage bill. It happened in a season when they won the Championship and got promoted to the Premier League. 

This legislation was made to prevent clubs from overspending which could cause long-term problems and even bankruptcy. But in a world where football players’ signing fees and salaries have been growing year by year, it is a rule that is very hard to keep. Even for huge clubs like Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester City or Galatasaray. While PSG and City could avoid serious punishments earlier, Galatasaray received a two-year ban from European football in 2016. Italian top club Milan got a one-year ban last year. While the most recent guilty club was Manchester City again. The club can’t compete in Europe in the next two seasons according to the latest decision. 

Biggest fines received by the players

Football leagues can also fine badly behaving players for different reasons. One of the most ill-tempered players, Eric Cantona received a £20,000 fine from his club, Manchester United after his kick on a Crystal Palace fan in 1995. Plus a £10,000 fine from the FA and an eight-month ban from football. Sheffield Wednesday player Paolo di Canio also received a £10,000 fine in 1998. It was for pushing the referee in a game against Arsenal. 

Recently the most common reason for getting a fine was a bad tweet or controversial comments on social media. Ashley Cole was ordered to pay £90,000 for using inappropriate language for the FA.  While Rio Ferdinand regularly received fines for his comments. He also missed a drug test earlier as a United player, which had a consequence of a £50,000 fine. But Argentine striker Carlos Tevez received one of the biggest fines after he refused to play in a Champions League game against Bayern Munich. He got a 2-week suspension and a fine of £500,000 after his actions. Online gambling sites in the UK are offering the smallest odds for these two team’s victory of this year’s Champions League. 

Collective punishment

Probably the biggest football punishment ever was affecting the players of Italian club, Napoli at the end of last year. They refused to go on a training retreat suggested by the club president, Aurelio de Laurentiis. Laurentiis’ reply was a fine for everyone up to at least 25% of their salary. But he was asking the Italian Arbitration Committee to be able to extend it to 50%. It would have meant a £320,000 fine for team captain Lorenzo Insigne, who was leading the revolt. But before Christmas the president offered peace to the players and suspended the payment of the fines. Which seemed to work as the club managed to win the Italian Cup against Juventus two weeks ago. But the question of the fines are still debated on court and might effects on next season’s squad. 

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