Arsenal have the worst disciplinary document within the Premier League this season, with their 4 crimson playing cards essentially the most of any crew.
Not one of the Arsenal gamers have been reprimanded by the police for his or her actions on the pitch, nevertheless, as occurred to Ian Wright in 1997.
Taking part in in opposition to Coventry in April of the 1996/97 season, Wright scored a first-half penalty to cancel out Dion Dublin’s opener. The Arsenal ahead performed the complete 90 minutes of the 1-1 draw at Highfield Street, however after taking part in up in opposition to Richard Shaw and Paul Williams all recreation, he quickly had one other battle on his fingers – this time with the police.
Arsenal legend Ian Wright handed £15,000 fantastic
Whereas strolling off the pitch on the finish of the sport, after participating with the Coventry followers and thanking his personal Arsenal supporters, Wright entered the dressing room solely to be encountered with regulation enforcement.
“I bought reported after a recreation in opposition to Coventry Metropolis,” Wright recalled whereas talking on the Stick with Soccer podcast, delivered to you by Sky Bet. “I made a impolite hand gesture to the followers.
“I went again to the dressing room and there have been police – they got here to say that I’d been reported. I used to go to sure stadiums, and also you’d get numerous booing however while you bought shut, they’d have amusing, so I assumed they [Coventry] had been fantastic.
“So, what occurred was that when the sport completed, I clapped them and so they had been booing me, so I made the hand gesture and walked off. I bought a £17,000 fantastic.”
The FA actually fined Wright £15,000 – one of many largest monetary punishments ever handed out to a participant in England on the time. The punishment associated to 2 offences, nevertheless, with the FA deciding a fantastic was deserved moderately than a prolonged ban.
Just a few days earlier than his gesture at Coventry, Wright had additionally made remarks to referee Mike Riley that obtained a yellow card on the time and had been later reported throughout Arsenal’s 1-1 draw with Blackburn at Highbury.
David Davies, the FA’s director of public affairs, acknowledged: “The Fee made it completely clear to Ian Wright that he may anticipate no sympathy in anyway if he appeared earlier than them once more in comparable and confirmed circumstances.
“The severest of penalties that might take away him from the sport for a really very long time could be inevitable.”