Neil Warnock criticises 'out of order' treatment from FA over fine

Neil Warnock has criticised the treatment he received from the FA after he was handed a £20,000 fine for comments he made about Premier League officials.

The Cardiff manager was hit with three FA charges after he branded the officials as the "worst in the world" after his side were beaten 2-1 against Chelsea on March 31.

Warnock was particularly frustrated after Chelsea's 84th-minute equaliser by Cesar Azpilicueta at the Cardiff City Stadium was allowed despite the Chelsea defender clearly being in an offside position.

The 70-year-old approached the officials after the final whistle and stared at them, without saying anything.

Warnock previously said the comments he made in a radio interview where he revealed his wife would have supported him 'thumping' the officials were "unacceptable" and has suggested his wife will now pay half of the fine.

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"I have to take it on the chin - that is all. I am disappointed in the first two charges. I didn't think they warranted in being proven guilty.

"Not when we showed an article of what (Maurizio) Sarri said about referees less than three weeks ago and he never got a charge.

"We were disappointed in that. But I can understand where they were coming from with Sharon's (his wife) comments. Because you don't condone violence with referees.

"At least she is paying half the fine! I haven't got to pay her for a start.

"When you get an institute like the FA, as big as it is, I find it disappointing that they are allowed to bring in an outside barrister to prove the case against me and have all my information on what my arguments are and have three to four weeks to get his head around it.

"I think that is out of order if I am honest."

Warnock, whose side realistically need to beat former club Crystal Palace on Saturday to retain their hopes of Premier League safety, also claimed managers could no longer be forthright in their views and insisted the governing body had shown "no sympathy whatsoever".

"The scope of what you can't say now is pretty much everything," he added.

"They just probably want robot managers now or managers that don't speak English. That is the way it is going. The humour is going out of the game now.

"I don't know what else to say now. I will just have to say no comment and be a boring person won't I?"

Two crowdfunding pages, which had reached £500 and £15 respectively on Friday morning, were set up by the Cardiff fans to try to raise the five-figure punishment handed to Warnock.

Earlier in the week, Azpilicueta joked he would pay Warnock's fine and the Bluebirds boss laughed the gesture would be well received.

He said: "They got winning bonuses didn't they Chelsea? Which they all know as footballers they shouldn't have. They shouldn't have got anything at all. So that would be nice."

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