West Ham risk FA fine to compound Graham Potter misery

West Ham could face action from the FA following the ‘mass confrontation’ towards the end of the Premier League meeting with Nottingham Forest at the London Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

The Hammers were beaten 2-1 by Champions League chasing Forest as an underwhelming season for the club comes to an underwhelming end. Morgan Gibbs-White opened the scoring for the visitors when pouncing on an awful Alphonse Areola mistake before Nikola Milenkovic got his head on a dangerous Anthony Elanga free kick to make it two.

That second Nottingham Forest goal caused great controversy with a six-minute VAR check for offside following, the system struggling because the newfangled semi-automated offside technology was not working, and neither was the communications system between referee Sam Barrott and VAR.

West Ham risk fine for Nottingham Forest ‘confrontation’

A statement from the Premier League Match Centre eventually clarified: "The referee's call of goal was checked and confirmed by VAR – with Milenkovic in an onside position and Nicolas Dominguez in an offside position, but deemed not to be impacting on play. The semi-automated offside technology was not available to the VAR in this incident. There were also issues with the VAR communications to the on-field officials."

The ever-clinical Jarrod Bowen did find a consolation strike through a brilliant volley but it was a frustrating outing for West Ham, who could not find a leveller despite late pressure. As the match came to an end, players from both sides confronted each other on the pitch with yellow cards shown to Murillo, Morata, Edson Alvarez and Carlos Soler.

Former PGMOL chief Keith Hackett has now warned West Ham that the behaviour could come with a fine from the FA. He told West Ham Zone: “This mass confrontation will certainly result in a charge to both clubs for failing to control their players.

“It was a testing time for the referee Sam Barrott, and he will on review of his performance learn a considerable amount. He maintained his composure where players around him were losing theirs. The surrounding of match officials must stop and this should result in a Special Incident report to the authorities. The size of the fine will depend on previous record.”

Graham Potter reacts to West Ham defeat

A fine would rub salt into West Ham wounds after a 17th defeat of the Premier League season. The Hammers sit 15th in the top flight and are on track for their worst finish since 2020.

Reacting to the VAR controversy in the match, Potter said: "They were drawing lines, and I think they ran out of ink. It happens, there is nothing we can do. It is not ideal for me, [Forest head coach] Nuno, the ref, the people in stadium - they think VAR are taking a long time deciding what to do, but it's the tech."

The West Ham manager also added: “We have to lift the level because you can't sit around waiting for the margins to turn. You've got to make them turn. But that's fine. That's what we know.

“As I said before, we inherited a situation where the team has conceded a lot of goals. We feel that we've changed that. We feel like we've made the team more competitive and every game we've been competitive.

“But nevertheless, the points tally, what we want to do, isn't as big as we'd like. Having said that, attack-wise, we've made some steps, but not enough. And again, to the teams that are competing to be in the Champions League, there is still a difference there that we have to strive to get better and try to get towards.”

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