The highly-anticipated clash between Manchester United and Liverpool was abandoned yesterday due to the United supporters storming Old Trafford right before the game. Reports coming out of England state that neither team left their hotels before the incident occurred.
The match was first delayed but was later called off and a rescheduled date has not been announced yet. Legally, United could be looking at a forfeit defeat and could also face additional punishment from the FA.
Section 8.3.4 of the FA rulebook reads:
“In the event of a match being abandoned due to the conduct of one Club or its members or supporters the Board has the power to order that the match is not replayed and to award either one or three points to the Club not at fault.
“It cannot levy a financial penalty due to the conduct of a Club.”
The combatting argument to this is that the Premier League rulebook states that clubs cannot be punished if the police are involved with the decision to postpone games. And due to the massive scale of the protests, they were.
The main agenda for the protests – that started outside the stadium and eventually progressed into the pitch – is that the United supporters want the Glazers to surrender their ownership of the club. The hate against the owners has been growing ever since the European Super League announcement, and the scale of the protests has been progressively growing with every passing week.
