Alisson Becker Fined for Tunnel Outburst After Controversial Penalty
Alisson Becker has been hit with an £8,000 fine after accepting an FA charge for misconduct following Liverpool’s stormy 2-2 draw with Nottingham Forest last month.
The Liverpool goalkeeper’s anger boiled over at the City Ground after he was penalised for a late challenge on former team-mate Neco Williams, a decision that allowed Morgan Gibbs-White to put Forest in front from the spot.
Liverpool would eventually salvage a point thanks to a late Victor Munoz equaliser, but the damage to Alisson’s mood was already done. As the players left the pitch, the Brazilian was seen kicking the fourth official’s electronic board in frustration near the tunnel area – the same board that had already caused chaos by malfunctioning and delaying Liverpool’s triple substitution in the build-up to the penalty.
That flash of fury has now brought formal punishment.
In a statement, the FA confirmed: “Liverpool’s Alisson Becker has been fined £8,000 for misconduct at the Premier League fixture against Nottingham Forest on 29 August.
“It was alleged that the goalkeeper acted in an improper manner around the tunnel area after the final whistle.
“Alisson Becker has subsequently accepted the charge against him and received the standard penalty.”
For Alisson, the frustration will sting even more after the Premier League’s Key Match Incidents (KMI) Panel this week ruled that the penalty should never have been awarded in the first place.
Of the five-person panel, three members judged that Alisson’s challenge on Williams did not merit a spot-kick. Their view was clear: the goalkeeper’s contact was a natural consequence of his attempt to make a save, not an offence.
“The contact from Alisson was inevitable as a consequence of his momentum in attempting to save the ball,” the KMI Panel said. “The contact made was not reckless and below the threshold for a penalty.”
Yet the same panel backed the VAR team on the night. Referee Sam Barrott was not sent to the pitchside monitor by VAR Michael Oliver, and the KMI group unanimously agreed that this non-intervention was correct under the current “clear and obvious” standard.
“However, the non-intervention by the VAR was unanimously supported on the basis that it was not a clear and obvious error,” the panel concluded.
So the sequence stands in stark contrast: a penalty the experts now say was wrong, a VAR process they still defend, and a goalkeeper left with a fine and a formal misconduct charge for his reaction to it all.
For Alisson and Liverpool, the incident becomes another entry in a growing catalogue of officiating flashpoints. The question now is how long players will keep swallowing decisions they feel are wrong before emotion spills over again in the tunnel.
