Arsène Wenger has been given a four-match touchline ban by the Football Association following his altercation with the fourth official, Anthony Taylor, at the end of Arsenal’s dramatic 2-1 home win over Burnley last Sunday.
The manager has avoided a stadium ban, which the independent regulatory commission that heard the case was empowered to hand out but he has been barred from the touchline with immediate effect.
The sanction applies to Arsenal’s FA Cup tie at Southampton on Saturday and the Premier League fixtures against Watford, Chelsea and Hull City.
Wenger had admitted the misconduct charge and he requested a personal hearing that took place on Friday. The FA had considered it as a “non-standard” issue because of the serious or unusual nature of the offence and it meant there was no set sanction. Wenger was also fined £25,000. Arsenal said in a statement they did not intend to appeal
Wenger was accused of using “abusive and/or insulting words” towards Taylor after Jon Moss’s decision to award Burnley a stoppage-time penalty. It is alleged the manager called Moss a cheat, which he denies.
Having been dismissed from the technical area for that reaction, Wenger then tried to push Taylor out of the way when the official informed him he was not allowed to watch the game from the corridor of the tunnel. Arsenal snatched victory with an even later penalty.
The commission took into account the fact Wenger had already been sent off and that he then put his hand on Taylor more than once. It was also noted Wenger had a reasonably clean recent disciplinary record.
He will not be allowed in the dugout or on the touchline during the four matches of his suspension but he can speak to his players before and after them and, also, in the dressing room at half-time. He can communicate with his staff on the bench during the games via telephone, walkie-talkie or earpiece, or through a runner.
Wenger apologised for his behaviour after the Burnley game. “I regret everything,” he said. “I should have shut up, gone in and gone home. I apologise for that. Look, it was nothing bad. I said something you hear every day in football. Overall, nine times out of 10, you are not sent to the stand for that. If I am, I am, and I should have shut up completely. I was quite calm during the whole game, more than usual. But just in the last two or three minutes.”
Asked about the push on Taylor, Wenger said: “I was sent to the stands. I didn’t know if I was sent to the stands but I was sent out. I thought I could watch it from the corridor, you know
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