Jurgen Klopp has been handed a two-match touchline ban and fined £75,000 by the FA following comments he made after Liverpool's win over Tottenham last month.
The German took issue with referee Paul Tierney, whom he claimed had an issue with him. Klopp will only been banned for one match with the second suspended and will only be served should he commit a further breach before the end of next season.
Liverpool saw off Tottenham 4-3 at Anfield with Diogo Jota bagging a stoppage time winner in front of the Kop. Klopp, who had been left fuming by the refusal to give Mohamed Salah a foul before Tottenham's equaliser, went up to fourth official John Brooks and celebrated in front of his face.
Brooks advised Tierney to brandish a yellow card, with the referee also consulting VAR before booking the Liverpool boss. Audio details have since been released of Brooks' dialogue with Tierney, as well as Tierney's dialogue with Klopp.
Brooks initiated contact with the referee to say: "Jurgen Klopp has just run and celebrated in my face. I think it's a yellow card mate, minimum." Tierney approached Klopp and said: "Right, I have to show you yellow, it could be red, but I am going to show you yellow. He [Brooks] said yellow. We will give you the benefit of the doubt, don't do anything more."
After full-time Klopp was seen berating Tierney and in his post-match press conference suggested that the official had a personal issue with him. He said: “How they can give a foul on Mohamed Salah [before Spurs’ third goal]. We have our history with [Paul] Tierney, I really don’t know what he has against us, he has said there is no problems but that cannot be true.
"How he looks at me, I don’t understand it. In England nobody has to clarify these situations, it’s really tricky and hard to understand. My celebration was unnecessary, which is fair but what he said to me when he gave me the yellow card is not okay.”
The PGMOL confirmed, in the aftermath of the incident that, despite Klopp's accusations, Tierney acted professionally throughout. They said: “Match officials in the Premier League are recorded in all games via a communications system and having fully reviewed the audio of referee Paul Tierney from today’s fixture, we can confirm he acted in a professional manner throughout, including when issuing the caution to the Liverpool manager so, therefore, we strongly refute any suggestion that Tierney’s actions were improper.”
Klopp went on to commit something of a U-turn regarding his issue with Tierney as he said, just days later: “I understand I opened the box. The rest was how I felt in that moment about Paul Tierney reffing our games. I am very sure he is not doing it intentionally but we have a history and I cannot deny that.
“Of course things didn’t happen intentionally but they are still there and it’s a feeling. I know the refs were really angry about what I said and now go for it. I heard I was lying. I did a lot of things that day but I didn’t lie.”
