Eric Dier has been banned for four matches and fined £40,000 by the FA for confronting a supporter after Tottenham’s FA Cup defeat to Norwich City back in March.
The midfielder jumped into the crowd moments after Spurs had crashed out of footballs oldest cup competition on penalties – with the 26-year-old reportedly protecting his brother, who was being abused by another fan the stands.
An FA spokesman said: “Eric Dier has been suspended for four matches with immediate effect, fined £40,000 and warned as to his future conduct following a breach of FA Rule E3.
“The Tottenham Hotspur FC player admitted that his actions at the conclusion of a fixture against Norwich City FC in The FA Cup on 04 March 2020 were improper but denied that they were also threatening.
“An independent Regulatory Commission subsequently found Eric Dier’s actions to be threatening.”
It means that Dier will now miss Thursday’s trip to Bournemouth, Sunday’s north London derby and then the games against Newcastle United and Leicester City – meaning he won’t be able to feature until the final day visit to Crystal Palace on 26 July at the earliest.
Jose Mourinho spoke about the incident recently and admitted that he expected Dier to escape any FA punishment. The Portuguese boss, who will fuming about the outcome, is set to speak to the press this afternoon ahead of the Bournemouth match and will no doubt have plenty to say about Dier’s punishment.
In terms of central defenders, Mourinho will have to call upon either Davinson Sanchez or Jan Vertonghen to replace Dier in the coming weeks – with Juan Foyth (knee) and Japhet Tanganga (back) still out injured.
Extremely harsh.Would understand if there had actually been contact and a confrontation between Dier and the spectator butbthat is not the case.
Surely worth appealing.
Again proof that the powers that be at the FA are a bunch of tossers.
im not a fan of Dier but i agree 4 match ban is over the top
I`m sure Jose put the kybosh on this when he opened his big mouth about it last week. the FA bods probably saw it as an attempt to try and influence them
But hey that`s his management style as far as I can see: all mind games, bluster and bullshit, no evidence so far of the tactical genius we`ve been told to expect
[…] – with Japhet Tanganga (back), Juan Foyth (knee) and now Eric Dier (suspended), who was banned for four-matches for his incident against Norwich City in the FA Cup back in March, all unavailable […]