Fifa has levied more than £1.4m of fines on national football associations during 2016, including those issued to England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland for displaying poppies during November’s World Cup qualifying matches. The FA has announced it is appealing against the fine.
The country fined the most for repeated misbehaviour in 2016 was Chile, punished by Fifa on four occasions for homophobic chanting by their fans during qualifiers for the 2018 World Cup. The chanting has cost them 195,000 Swiss francs (£153,180).
Chile were initially fined 70,000 Swiss francs (£54,980) in January 2016 for homophobic chanting that had taken place at four matches. They were then fined again in May for another incident in a home defeat against Argentina. The punishment was a 30,000 Swiss franc fine, and being made to play one World Cup qualifier away from the Estadio Nacional Julio Martínez Prádanos in Santiago.
As a result of this ban, Chile faced Bolivia in the smaller 30,000-capacity Estadio Monumental David Arellano in Santiago. On the night, it seemed to affect Chile, who managed only a 0-0 draw. However the game has subsequently been awarded as a 3-0 victory to Chile, as Bolivia fielded the ineligible player Nelson Cabrera, who had previously represented Paraguay.
Chile were fined yet again in October and ordered to play another match away from their national stadium. Chile’s FA, the ANFP, signed an anti-homophobia agreement with MOVILH, a LGBT-rights group in Chile, in the same month but this did not deter the chants. On Monday Fifa fined Chile another 30,000 Swiss francs and ordered them to play two further matches away from their usual home.
The South American section of World Cup qualifying has kept Fifa’s disciplinary powers busy throughout 2016. Alongside Chile, Argentina (twice), Brazil, Colombia, Paraguay (twice), Peru (three times) and Venezuela have faced sanctions for crowd behaviour – mostly discriminatory and homophobic chanting. That amounts to more than half the teams in the continent competing for a place in Russia.
The most severe sanctions over the course of the year handed out to a European nation for fan behaviour were to Croatia – fined 150,000 Swiss francs (£117,800) and ordered to play two games behind closed doors because of discriminatory chanting during a friendly against Israel. Romania were fined 95,000 Swiss francs (£74,600) and Greece 80,000 Swiss francs (£62,800) for incidents during the last round of World Cup qualifying games, and Romania additionally have to play a match away from the Arena Nationala in Bucharest.
The smallest nation to face a sanction were the Solomon Islands. They were fined 6,000 Swiss francs for fielding an ineligible player against Tahiti.
The smallest fine was for the Republic of Ireland, whom Fifa on Monday fined 5,000 Swiss francs for wearing a logo commemorating the 1916 Easter Rising in a friendly with Switzerland in March – something that appears to have come to Fifa’s attention only because it was cited as a precedent for the home nations to wear poppies on their shirts last month.
The biggest fine issued by Fifa to a football association in 2016 was for administrative matters, not the behaviour of spectators or players. The Spanish FA were fined 220,000 Swiss francs (£172,800). It related to irregularities in the international transfers of under-18 players, and was part of a Fifa investigation that also led to the club sides Atlético Madrid and Real Madrid being fined 900,000 Swiss francs (£707,000) and 360,000 Swiss francs (£282,000) respectively.
League table of Fifa fines to national associations, 2016:
1. Spain £172,800
2. Chile £153,100
3. Croatia £117,800
4. Honduras £113,900
5. Mexico £82,400
6. Romania £74,600
7= El Salvador £62,800
7= Greece £62,800
9. Argentina £58,900
10. Peru £51,000
11. Ukraine £47,100
12. Albania £39,200
13= England £35,350
13= Paraguay £35,350
15= Equatorial Guinea £31,400
15= Kuwait £31,400
17. Poland £27,500
18. Italy £23,500
19= Bosnia £19,600
19= Colombia £19,600
19= Panama £19,600
22= Brazil £15,700
22= Canada £15,700
22= Scotland £15,700
22= Uruguay £15,700
22= Venezuela £15,700
22= Wales £15,700
28. Northern Ireland £11,780
29. Bolivia £9,400
30. Solomon Islands £4,700
31. Republic of Ireland £3,930
