Everton and Frank Lampard's defence after he was charged for comments he made after the Merseyside derby at Anfield earlier this year have been revealed.
Lampard was charged by the FA following the Blues' 2-0 defeat to Liverpool in April. Throughout the match, his side felt aggrieved at a number of decisions they perceived to have gone against them, including particularly a penalty call against Anthony Gordon in the second half.
With the scores still at 0-0, the winger looked to have been brought down by Joel Matip inside the Liverpool box. However, referee Stuart Attwell turned down the appeals from Everton, who went on to lose the match.
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Blues boss Lampard later said in his post-match press conference: “Well, it’s a penalty in the second half, for me. I don’t, I don’t think you get them here and, I think, probably if that’s Mo Salah at the other end, I think he gets a penalty.
"And I’m not being, trying to create conflict here, I think it’s just a reality of football sometimes. Maybe I played at clubs, sometimes, that were top eight reaches of the league, and the crowd behind them, and you do it, you get them or you don’t. For me, for sure, that was a penalty. The second one on Anthony. It’s a foul, it’s a clear foul. But we, you don’t get them here."
Lampard was fined £30,000 by the FA after those comments, but he did attend a meeting with an Independent Regulatory Commission on May 30 before that decision was made. And the organisation has now published the written reasons behind the charge, and what Everton's defence of the comments was.
The document revealed the Blues had submitted "penalty analysis" over the last two or three seasons into evidence, which were accepted, although the Commission also would "consider their relevance" during the hearing. Two letters from David Harrison, director of football operations and club secretary at the club, as well as one letter from Lampard himself, were sent.
One of Mr Harrison's letters stated: “Mr Lampard’s comments were a general statement based on his long experience in football both as a player and a manager at club and international level, about the difficulty of being awarded penalties when you are playing away from home in front of large, vocal and supportive crowd – in his view “it’s just the reality of football sometimes” that it is harder for away teams to be awarded penalties.
"This is an objective statement supported by fact as over the thirty Premier League seasons, there have been approximately 2,431 penalties awarded, with 61% (approximately) being awarded to the home team – it being further noted that Liverpool have not had a penalty awarded against them in 46 Premier League matches which is the longest run for any club in Premier League history.”
Everton also made reference to "alleged comments made by Jurgen Klopp" by submitting an article from December 20, 2021, believed to concern what the Liverpool boss said to Paul Tierney after a 2-2 draw with Tottenham Hotspur. The Evening Standard report submitted alleges Klopp said: "I have no problems with any referees. Only you."
The Commission determined it could also "consider their relevance" during the hearing, although no further particular reference to them is made during the report. However, the written reasons later state: "The absence in these reasons of reference to any particular point or submission should not imply that the Commission did not have regard to the point or submissions, many of which advanced during the main part of the hearing were taken into account in any event when considering mitigation."
The reasons confirm that Lampard never intended to be personally critical of Attwell or question his integrity, and the Commission accepted that there was no malice involved in the comments. But, they were also in no doubt that any "reasonable man" hearing his comments would think the words implied bias on the part of the referee.
Included in their mitigation, the Commission accepted an apology from the Everton manager that his comments were not intended in a malicious manner. And, the organisation were impressed that Lampard interrupted a family holiday to attend the meeting via Microsoft Teams.
The written reasons also make note that the Blues boss had a regret for mentioning a specific Liverpool player by name, and he would take that away if he could. That mitigation reduced the financial sanction from what was initially a £45,000 fine to a £30,000 one - with Lampard also ordered to pay the costs of the Regulatory Commission itself.
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