SHAME ON YOU
Forest coach Reid’s vile rant laid bare, yet he is fined just £5k
NOTTINGHAM Forest coach steven reid has been given a two-match ban for a shocking tirade at referee Paul Tierney that saw him repeatedly call the official a ‘c***’.
The 43-year-old, a former scotland assistant under steve Clarke, was among a number of Forest staff — including club owner evangelos Marinakis — who stormed the City Ground pitch following Darwin Nunez’s controversial 99th-minute winner for Liverpool.
It came after the reds were allowed to restart the game despite play being stopped for an injury when Forest had the ball.
First-team coach reid was shown a red card after his furious rant at Tierney, which has now been detailed in the referee’s report, but has escaped with a £5,000 fine and two-match touchline ban. The club were also fined £75,000 for failure to control their employees.
An independent commission was told that former republic of Ireland international reid said to the referee: ‘It’s the same every week, you c***. I worked with you f***ing lot every f***ing week last season. It’s the same every f***ing week… you c***.’
Assistant referee scott Ledger wrote in his report: ‘reid made a comment calling Paul a “c***” at least three times. Also after being shown the red card he continued to make comments about the PGMOL, making reference to the group of referees being against his club.’
Former referee Keith Hackett has labelled the decision a ‘joke’. He said: ‘A paltry £5,000 fine for the extreme level of verbal abuse is a joke. If that is the level of punishment deemed acceptable at the highest level for those who target referees, the game has a serious problem.
‘What kind of a deterrent is that? This is not sending the right message to players and staff. It does not demonstrate zero tolerance for those who cross the line and does nothing to prevent repeat incidents.
‘It is unacceptable. I believe the FA is letting the game down with such leniency.’