Fifa hand FA second fine over banned socks but escape with a warning for fans' political chanting
England’s World Cup heroes wearing the wrong socks landed the Football Association another Fifa fine yesterday - but it was let off with a warning for fan chants of “No surrender”.
The FA was punished for the second time in three days after two members of Gareth Southgate’s squad continued to defy orders to stop wearing British-made TRUsox during their run to the semi-finals.
Raheem Sterling, Dele Alli and Eric Dier have all been pictured in the product, which feature non-slip pads and are designed to be worn on top of regular football socks to stop players’ feet moving around in their boots.
Amid a crackdown on unauthorised branding at the World Cup, Fifa announced it had fined the FA 70,000 Swiss francs (£52,823) hours before England’s defeat to Croatia on Wednesday and it did the same before their third-place play-off yesterday.
It said in a statement: “Fifa had previously requested the Football Association to cease the activity that led to the breach and had in fact imposed a sanction on 10 July for the same infringement that had been caused by a higher number of members of the English national team.”
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At the same time, it announced the FA had also been warned over “political chants” by supporters during the Croatia match.
The Daily Telegraph exclusively revealed on Thursday that Fifa had begun disciplinary proceedings over “possible discriminatory” chants by spectators at the Luzhniki Stadium.
It confirmed yesterday it had acted for the first time over England fans’ repeated chanting of “No surrender” after the anti-IRA slogan was clearly audible during the National Anthem on Wednesday.
It was also alleged to the Telegraph on Thursday that there had been some anti-Islamic chanting and Nazi salutes in the same section of the ground.
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Fifa, which has been criticised for issuing harsher penalties for infringements of its rules on ambush marketing than those on discrimination, said: “The decision was taken after having analysed the respective evidence available and considered all factors surrounding the infringement, including the fact that the incident was triggered by a very small group of fans.”
Meanwhile, Fifa confirmed yesterday that Russia had been among the most drug-tested teams at the World Cup.
The governing body had previously refused to reveal how many tests the host nations’ players had undergone amid calls for them to be singled out following the country’s doping scandal and their extraordinary start to the tournament.
It would still not provide any numbers yesterday but said Russia had been “one of the most tested” sides during the competition.
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