Arsène Wenger has been handed a three-match touchline ban and a £40,000 fine after the Arsenal manager admitted he verbally abused Mike Dean and questioned the referee’s integrity following the draw at West Bromwich Albion.
Wenger will start the punishment in the FA Cup at Nottingham Forest on Sunday and it will take in two other away games, in the Carabao Cup against Chelsea and at Bournemouth in the Premier League.
A furious Wenger entered the referee’s room after Dean awarded a late penalty for handball against Calum Chambers from which West Brom earned a 1-1 draw last Sunday.
A statement from the FA on Friday said: “Arsène Wenger will serve a touchline ban for Arsenal’s next three matches after he was charged with misconduct. It follows an independent regulatory commission hearing at which the Arsenal manager admitted his language and behaviour in the match officials’ changing room after the West Brom game on Sunday was abusive, improper and questioned the integrity of the match referee. He was also fined £40,000.”
In a separate case Wenger has been asked by the FA to provide observations regarding what he said to the media about the penalty decisions which went against Arsenal at West Brom and then at home to Chelsea, and about the general standard of refereeing.
Wenger said on Friday that he stood by his comments. He appeared to suggest after the Chelsea game, in which Eden Hazard was awarded a penalty after a challenge by Héctor Bellerín, that there may be a conspiracy against his team. “We got again a farcical decision on a penalty but we knew that, as well, before,” he said.
He is not backing down. “I maintain what I said in the press conference [after the Chelsea game] – 100%,” he said on Friday. He believes Hazard should have been booked for diving. “I think it was a yellow card for Hazard. One hundred per cent [he dived]. I have a right to have my opinion and I respect everybody’s opinion.”
Precedent suggests Wenger would be more likely fined or warned over his press conference comments than banned if the FA deems them worthy of action.
Wenger did not attend the FA disciplinary hearing because he is deep in meetings with the new arrivals brought in to upgrade Arsenal’s transfer and contract structure. Sven Mislintat, the head of recruitment who joined from Borussia Dortmund, has already had a hand in one purchase, having identified the 20-year-old Greek defender Konstantinos Mavropanos who signed with a view to going on loan to gain experience.
Wenger said this was an interesting as well as busy time behind the scenes as Mislintat gets to know Arsenal and vice versa. Raúl Sanllehí, the incoming head of football relations from Barcelona, is due to start work on 1 February.
“It’s important to find a new balance,” says Wenger. “For them it’s more difficult than for me, because they have to adapt to a new environment, they discover suddenly a different structure. At the moment it’s a bit new and unusual because it’s an important period but we are not used to working together.”
The key to developing trust is, Wenger said, communication. “That is why I have no time to take care of my FA charge because I have meetings with them, to talk about how we can make it all work. For Sven it’s important to know all the scouts. We have a big scouting system so he has to meet everybody and to explain how it works – that’s why it’s very time consuming at the moment.”
Potential targets and the likelihood of any signings need plenty of discussion. “We talk. We know the players. We know. It’s not that we discover – we know every single player in Europe before Sven arrived,” WEnger said. “Sometimes, in a little club in Germany, he might know somebody we might ignore.”
Arsenal have plenty on their plate trying to refine their squad while the contracts of Alexis Sánchez, Mesut Özil and Jack Wilshere remain on wind-down mode with no sign yet of any extension.