Chelsea and West Ham United have been fined £325,000 and £300,000 respectively by the Football Association following a mass confrontation at the conclusion of their Premier League fixture last month.
The incident erupted after Chelsea secured a dramatic 3-2 comeback victory against their London rivals on 31 January at Stamford Bridge, with nearly 20 players embroiled in a melee at the final whistle.
West Ham winger Adama Traore sparked the confrontation, throwing Marc Cucurella to the ground before clashing with Joao Pedro.
The melee intensified, resulting in West Ham’s Jean-Clair Todibo receiving a straight red card via VAR for clutching Pedro’s throat.
The FA alleged that “Chelsea FC failed to ensure its players didn’t behave in an improper and/or provocative way around the 95th minute.”
It further stated that “West Ham United FC failed to ensure its players didn’t behave in an improper and/or provocative and/or violent way at this time.”
Both clubs have since admitted the charges.
Chelsea were also fined £150,000 last month after a plastic bottle was thrown from their technical area towards Aston Villa’s staff during a Premier League game in December.
Tensions boiled over after Ollie Watkins bagged a brace off the bench to flip the contest on its head and deliver Villa a 2-1 win on enemy soil, having cancelled out Joao Pedro’s opener to get the comeback started.
A bottle, believed to be filled with water, was then chucked at Villa’s technical area during their celebrations.
“I was made aware of an allegation that an unidentified member of the Chelsea technical area had thrown a plastic drinks bottle in the direction of the Aston Villa technical area,” referee Stuart Atwell wrote in his report about the incident.
An independent regulator imposed the fine after Chelsea admitted to the charge, an FA statement confirmed.
