A decision is yet to be made on whether Everton will be charged in relation to the pitch invasion that followed the final game of the season.
Some fans went onto the grass after referee Stuart Attwell blew the final whistle following 10 minutes of injury time, signalling a vital 1-0 win over Bournemouth. It was a result that secured the club’s Premier League survival, sending Leicester City and Leeds United down instead.
The celebrations were far less intense than the previous year, when a dramatic win over Crystal Palace secured safety on the penultimate game of the season.
But they did catch the attention of the footballing authorities and an investigation is understood to be ongoing.
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The celebrations marking the end of this latest relegation battle were muted in comparison to the joy on show 12 months earlier, when thousands of supporters entered the Goodison Park pitch and shared moments with players and then-manager Frank Lampard, who ended up partying before fans from the directors’ box.
A number of supporters did run onto the pitch after the game last month, however, sparking pleas over the PA system for the field of play to be cleared. The club had urged fans to avoid going onto the pitch in the build up to the game, pointing towards the main features of the FA and Premier League’s Love Football, Protect the Game campaign. That scheme includes a “zero-tolerance” approach to ‘pitch encroachment’.
The club was fined £300,000 following a probe into the May 2022 scenes against Palace, though that night included two occasions when supporters entered the pitch - a small number following Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s late winner and then many more after the game. A supporter was also involved in an incident with then Palace boss Patrick Vieira. Everton later admitted two FA rule breaches and were handed the fine by an independent regulatory commission.
The FA is understood to be looking into the aftermath of the Bournemouth game but has not yet reached a conclusion on the matter. On Wednesday, the organisation announced it had charged Leeds United with misconduct in relation to crowd control in connection with an incident when the club hosted Newcastle United on May 13 - just over a fortnight before the Bournemouth match.
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