Published on 15.12.2023
Mikel Arteta has escaped punishment by the FA for his comments after Arsenal’s 1-0 defeat to Newcastle following a review by an Independent Regulatory Commission.
The Arsenal boss reacted angrily to the decision to award Anthony Gordon’s winning goal in last month’s clash at St James’ Park, despite it having survived multiple VAR checks.
The Arsenal manager was charged with FA rule E3.1 after he criticised the decision to allow Anthony Gordon’s winning goal for Newcastle on November 4.
The FA alleged Arteta’s comments constituted misconduct in that they were insulting towards match officials and/or detrimental to the game and/or brought the game into disrepute. However, the independent Regulatory Commission found that the charge was not proven.
The goal had three key talking points – whether Newcastle’s Joe Willock had taken the ball out of play in the build-up to the goal, whether Joelinton fouled Gabriel in assisting the goal, and whether Gordon was offside before scoring.
The FA wrote: “That the word ‘disgrace’ used by Arteta in the interviews ‘has a very similar spelling and pronunciation to the Spanish ‘desgracia’, the Spanish word has connotations of misfortune, tragedy or bad luck rather than the connotations of the English equivalent which suggest contempt, dishonour or disrespect. While the English meaning may lead to interpretations of abuse or insult, this was not the intended meaning of the Comments!”
Its good news for Arsenal that Mikel Arteta has avoided any punishment with the game against Liverpool at Anfield just over a week away.
