Patrick Vieira weighs in on Everton fine announced on Friday
Crystal Palace manager Patrick Vieira has weighed in on the fine Everton received for their fans’ actions after their game last season.
The Eagles were on the receiving end of a thrilling Toffees comeback towards the end of last season which saw Frank Lampard’s side secure survival in the Premier League.
As a result, fans poured onto the pitch to celebrate, both after the third goal and the final whistle, and the club have now been fined £300,000 for the incident which saw Vieira kick out at a supporter.
“I’m not surprised at all,” said Vieira on the length of time it has taken for the FA to reach the conclusion, as per London News Online. “This is something quite delicate – you need to analyse it properly and to try to get the best decision.
“If they believe that financial sanctions are the best way, then we all have to accept it. It’s not something that you see at Everton often, so the FA have made it clear that it’s something which is unacceptable.
“It’s now time to move on, and hopefully, they will manage the situation in a better way next time.”
Done and dusted
It perhaps shouldn’t have taken this amount of time to slap Everton with the fine that they deserved for being unable to keep the crowd at bay and under control which sparked Vieira’s reaction.
But it has now, finally, been dealt with and both clubs can put this firmly in the past and look to the future where, hopefully, a similar incident doesn’t happen again.
Unfortunately, there are always going to be a small portion of supporters who bring the credibility of the club down somewhat but as long as the majority keep doing what they are doing, Everton will be fine.
Lampard knows that he is in debt to the support he and the Toffees received last season which went such a long way to turning around what could have been a truly disastrous season for the club.
This incident put a blemish on the record that everyone will have wanted to avoid and Vieira has been very eloquent in his reaction to the news.