Wolverhampton Wanderers and Nottingham Forest have been charged by the Football Association for the brawl which broke out at the end of last week’s Carabao Cup tie. A penalty shootout was needed to separate the teams as the quarter-final finished 1-1 after 90 minutes at the City Ground. Forest won 4-3 on spot-kicks to set up a semi-final clash with Manchester United.
However, a scuffle broke out afterwards, with players and staff from both sides getting involved and stewards forced to run on to the pitch to intervene. The FA have now charged the two clubs with “failure to ensure their players and/or benches conducted themselves in an orderly fashion and/or refrained from provocative behaviour after the final whistle”.
A statement said: “Nottingham Forest FC and Wolverhampton Wanderers FC have been charged with breaching FA Rule E20.1 following their EFL Cup match on Wednesday 11 January 2023. It’s alleged that both clubs failed to ensure their players and/or benches conducted themselves in an orderly fashion and/or refrained from provocative behaviour after the final whistle. Nottingham Forest FC and Wolverhampton Wanderers FC have until Thursday 19 January 2023 to provide their responses.”
Morgan Gibbs-White appeared to be in the thick of the action, after he had come in for a lot of stick from the away end on the night. He had celebrated scoring against his former club in the shootout by standing in front of Wolves fans and sticking his fingers in his ears. Jack Colback did the same after his penalty. That was followed by Gibbs-White repeating the celebration when sliding in front of the away end after the shootout had finished. The following day, news broke that the FA were reviewing the mass brawl. Forest boss Steve Cooper was then asked about it in his pre-match press conference that morning, ahead of the game against Leicester City.
Julen Lopetegui said: “I haven’t had chance to assess it, to be honest. I am not sitting on the fence too much, I just haven’t (had the opportunity to assess it), because it has been a quick turnaround, 12 hours or something, and I have been more focused on the Leicester game. To be fair, everything was calm in the tunnel after and I know some of the Wolves staff and we spoke about the game, so there was nothing that went on after whatever went on on the pitch. I apologise for not giving you something, but I don’t want to say something because I am not aware of what happened. Asked for his thoughts on the incident, I don’t know. Maybe a gesture or a word (started it).”
