The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Fifa to sock England with £50,000 fine for wrong kit
The Football Association is understood to be considering an appeal after Fifa fined it more than £50,000 because three England players have been wearing unauthorised socks at Russia 2018.
Dele Alli, Eric Dier and Raheem Sterling have been wearing the distinctively patterned, Devon-made Trusox over their official Nike socks and have ignored a Fifa warning to stop doing so.
In a disciplinary update published on its website before England’s World Cup semi-final against Croatia, Fifa said it was fining the FA 70,000 Swiss francs for “breaching media and marketing regulations and the Fifa equipment regulations”.
It added: “Fifa had previously requested the Football Association to cease the activity that led to the sanction. In particular, several members of the English national team continued to display unauthorised commercial branding on playing equipment items before and during the quarterfinal match between Sweden and England.”
This brings the total number of players to be sanctioned for wearing the non-slip sports socks during the game in Samara to four, as Sweden’s Andreas Granqvist has already been punished. It is understood the FA is likely to appeal against the severity of fine.
Dier is listed among several footballers on the Trusox website, with Gareth Bale and Alexis Sanchez also wearing the new brand, while England cricketers Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler and Joe Root and England rugby stars Danny Cipriani and Owen Farrell wear them, too.
And in the same disciplinary update, Fifa announced it was also fining Uruguay’s FA almost £40,000 for arriving late to a stadium and because one player has breached its equipment rules. The player is not named but Luis Suarez is known to be another Trusox wearer.
Under pressure from official sponsors, Fifa has been quick to dish out fines for unauthorised items, including a £50,000 sanction for the Croatian FA when it promoted beer other than Budweiser.