Hatters fined £15,000 by the FA for 'mass confrontation' after Sunderland defeat

Luton have been fined £15,000 by the Football Association for a ‘mass confrontation’ between their players and Sunderland’s after last month's Championship contest at Kenilworth Road.

Once the game had finished 2-1 to the visitors, striker Joe Taylor, who was on as a late substitute, was booked by referee Tom Nield for complaining that Town hadn’t been awarded a stoppage time penalty for handball by Aaron Connolly, while goalkeeper Thomas Kaminski, who had come up for a late corner, clashed with the visiting players.

It ended in melee that saw Sunderland midfielder Luke O’Nien jump on to the back of one of his team-mates to get involved, as he received a yellow card, cautions also handed out to Black Cats’ team-mate Jobe Bellingham and Hatters skipper Carlton Morris as well. Both teams were charged and have now received their punishment, Sunderland also hit with a £7,000 fine.

A statement from the FA said: “Luton Town and Sunderland have been fined £15,000 and £7,000 respectively for the mass confrontation at their EFL Championship match on Wednesday 23 October. Both clubs admitted that they failed to ensure their players and/or technical area staff didn’t behave in an improper and provocative way after the final whistle.”

The written reasons given by the independent Regulatory Commission for imposing their fines went on to say: “At the final whistle the Match Referee was occupied in dealing with protests from LTFC players. Meanwhile, a confrontation occurred between the LTFC goalkeeper and SAFC number 26, instigated by the LTFC goalkeeper.

“Thereafter, a number of players from both Clubs confront each other, with various degrees of pushing and pulling. Fortunately, there were no overt acts of violence that are sometimes seen in these confrontations. It is fair to say that some of the dozen or so players involved were trying to curtail the incident. The incident did involve technical area occupants, albeit in limited number and whose involvement was, in our view, an attempt to quell the situation.

"Fortunately, the incident took place in the centre of the field of play, away from the immediate presence of spectators and did not involve the use of stewards to regain order. The incident was short-lived. As Non Standard cases go, this incident as a whole was towards the lower end of the scale.

"The best mitigation for both Clubs is their prompt admission of the Charge, the relatively low-level and short-lived nature of the confrontation and that the technical area staff appear to be trying to bring the incident to an end. We note also LTFC's apology. It is disappointing that no such apology was forthcoming in the submissions of SAFC, whose submissions were largely focussed on placing blame at the door of LTFC.”