The FA has published the written reasons for the decision to ban Wolves striker Matheus Cunha for two games for his post-match attack on a member of Town’s security.
On December 17th, the Brazilian international was charged with misconduct for the incident in the wake of the Blues’ 2-1 win at Molineux three days earlier having elbowed a member of Town’s security detail in the back of the head and then ripped off his glasses, an incident referee Simon Hooper missed.
There was widespread criticism that it took the FA until December 30th to assemble an independent regulatory commission to hear the case, during which time Cunha, who had accepted the charged, remained available to Wolves, scoring twice within that period.
Following the incident, the player apologised and the member of security staff was reimbursed for the cost of replacing his glasses.
In his evidence, Cunha apologised to the Town security guard and gave his account of the events, which he claimed came about after he his teammate Rayan Ait-Nouri, who was shown a second yellow card in the melee, was surrounded by the Blues’ security for no reason he could see.
"As I tried to get closer to Rayan to make sure he was okay, I was suddenly surrounded by a lot of people,” he said.
"I felt like I was being shoved by the ITFC security personnel, so I shoved them back in an effort to break away from them to protect myself. It was never my intention to come into contact with Mr [redacted] and I certainly never meant to elbow him. I simply wanted to push him away from Rayan.
"Then all of a sudden, I remember Mr [redacted] turned round and had his hands on my shirt, and I shouted ‘stop’ but he kept hold of my shirt.
"Mr [redacted] is much bigger than me and I was surrounded by a large number of people, mainly ITFC personnel, so I remember feeling quite threatened at the time. So in an effort to get Mr [redacted] to let go of my shirt, in the heat of the moment
"I regrettably reached out and grabbed his glasses. I know it was wrong to do this and I take full responsibility for my actions.”
In addition to reviewing evidence supplied to the referee following the game by a Town staff member, the commission watched three videos of the incident.
The commission was sceptical of Cunha’s recollections: "Having repeatedly viewed the video footage, the commission did not accept [Cunha]’s version of events.
"It noted that there were a number of individuals on the pitch, although it was not possible to determine their roles and clubs in every instance.
"However, it did not see any provocation from ITFC personnel that would have caused [Cunha] to behave as he did. In particular, appeared calm and was simply standing on the pitch with his arms out to act as a barrier to those behind him.
"Understandably [he] turned round when he felt [Cunha]’s elbow on him, and indeed put his hand on [Cunha], but he did not appear aggressive at this point and the commission could see no justification for [Cunha]’s action in touching his face and removing his glasses.
"The commission noted that [Cunha] had to be restrained and led away by [Wolves] staff/teammates.”
The commission also dismissed a claim by Wolves that Town’s security personnel had been overly aggressive.
However, the commission agreed that Cunha accepting the charge, prompt apology and offer to pay for new glasses, as well as his previously clear disciplinary record, were mitigating factors.
Given those factors, the commission decided to reduce the suspension from three first-team games to two. A fine of £120,000 was considered, however, that was reduced to £80,000, also due to the mitigation.
Cunha missed last night’s Premier League game at home to Nottingham Forest, which the visitors won 3-0, and will be unavailable for the FA Cup tie with Bristol City at the weekend.