Arbeloa fined £25,000 by FA for claiming referee would not let Manchester United lose

Fulham manager Alvaro Arbeloa has been fined £25,000 and issued a warning by the FA after accepting a charge of improper conduct for remarks he made following his side’s 1-1 Premier League draw with Manchester United at Craven Cottage on 20 September.

Arbeloa questioned the integrity of the referee in the immediate aftermath of the match, saying: “I think all fouls for them. Every decision was for them, and I knew, I knew after the game against Man City that they don’t let Manchester United lose here.” The comments came a week after United had lost to Manchester City in a match that featured a contentious goal.

Written reasons published on Wednesday by the independent commission investigating the incident stated that Arbeloa’s words suggested “not only that there was bias on the part of the match officials throughout the game on repeated occasions, but also that there may even have been an element of pre-meditation by them and/or others to try to make up for an error in a different match.”

The fine represents a significant early setback for Arbeloa, who is in his first season in English football management having left Real Madrid over the summer. His position at Fulham is already under pressure on the pitch: the club sit bottom of the Premier League table after collecting just two points from their opening six games, with defeats to Chelsea, Sunderland, Crystal Palace and Ipswich Town alongside draws against United and Liverpool.

Fulham return to action on Saturday when they host newly-promoted Hull City at Craven Cottage, before facing Coventry City the following weekend and then Crystal Palace in the Carabao Cup quarter-final play-off. Their final fixture in October is a trip to Aston Villa.

Manchester United, meanwhile, have struggled to find form since the draw at Craven Cottage. Michael Carrick’s side were held to a 1-1 draw by 10-man Tottenham after the international break and were then beaten 2-0 by Atletico Madrid in the Champions League on Tuesday.