Crystal Palace have been fined £50,000 for a banner held up by the club’s supporters during their Premier League match with Nottingham Forest earlier in the season.
Palace were hit with a misconduct charge by the FA in November and, on Friday, an independent regulatory commission found the club had breached Rule E21 by failing “to ensure its spectators and/or supporters…didn’t behave in an improper, offensive, abusive, insulting and/or provocative” manner during the 1-1 draw with Forest on August 24.
A banner appearing to show Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis was held up in Selhurst Park’s Lower Holmesdale Road end, where the Holmesdale Fanatics (HF) supporters’ group is situated, during the game, which came amid heightened tensions between the clubs.
Palace contested the charge and put forward a “due diligence defence, arguing that it had taken all steps that could reasonably be taken” to ensure the banner was not displayed.
The commission had “no hesitation” in finding the banner to be “improper, offensive, abusive, insulting and/or provocative” and rejected Palace’s defence.
While the three-person panel acknowledged that the club “introduced responsible planning and preparation” for the game, it found that security searches “should have included the storage room that the club had set aside for the supporters’ banners”.
The commission acknowledged that the banner was removed quickly – “within about 2 minutes” – and voluntarily by fans and the rule breach did not include any aggravating factors, namely “physical violence between supporters, discriminatory chanting, disruption of the match, pitch invasion” – and was therefore on the lower end of the scale.
Tensions between the two clubs rose over the summer following Palace’s demotion from the Europa League — despite qualifying by winning the FA Cup — to the Conference League after being found to have breached UEFA’s rules on multi-club ownership. They were subsequently replaced in the competition by Forest.
Palace chairman Steve Parish suggested in July that Forest had played a role in blocking Palace’s entry into the Europa League.
It is not the first time Palace fans have been subject to scrutiny over banners they have displayed during matches.
Their ultras group, the HF, have been outspoken on issues including other clubs’ ownership, the scheduling of matches and the behaviour of governing bodies.
A banner displayed by the HF in October 2021 against Newcastle United was investigated by police. The banner took aim at the Premier League’s owners’ and directors’ test, following the takeover of Newcastle earlier that year, which was largely funded by the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF).
The Croydon Metropolitan Police said it had been reported as “offensive” but took no further action.
Palace were fined €10,000 (£8,693) by UEFA in September after fans displayed another banner, this time with the words ‘UEFA MAFIA’ on it, during the Conference League play-off game with Fredrikstad in August.