West Ham United have been charged by the Football Association for failing to ensure their players conducted themselves in an orderly fashion in their 1-1 draw at Southampton.
The Hammers' players surrounded referee Peter Bankes after he appeared to get in the way of Jarrod Bowen, who ended up losing the ball and a few seconds later Romain Perraud fired the Saints into a 1-0 lead on Sunday afternoon.
The England international complained the official's positioning prevented him from gaining possession, which allowed the Frenchman to win the ball back before firing past Łukasz Fabiański via a deflection.
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Now, the FA have charged West Ham for the players' actions over that incident at St Mary's. The report adds that the Hammers have until Monday, October 24 to provide a response.
A statement read: "West Ham United FC have been charged with a breach of FA Rule E20.1 following their Premier League fixture against Southampton FC on Sunday, October 16, 2022.
"It's alleged that the club failed to ensure that their players conducted themselves in an orderly fashion during the 20th minute of the fixture. West Ham United FC have until Monday, October 24, 2022, to provide a response."
Manager David Moyes did not hold back after the game when asked about the standard of officiating in the draw with Ralph Hasenhuttl's men. He slammed the decision to allow Peraud's goal as "ridiculous" and said that, among other things, cost his side the victory.
"How have we not got three points? The real reason is the referee, the referee gets in the way of the ability for us to defend," said Moyes after the game. "The ball comes out and Jarrod Bowen goes to get the ball and the referee blocks him from getting to it and the boy scores from it. Ridiculous, it really is. Wait until you see the angles and the pictures and you will soon see how terrible it is that he allows it to go on."
He added: "What would you normally do? You have watched football, you must know the answer to that as much as me? Obviously the ball in somebody’s favour or it might be a bounced ball between the two teams but you can’t get in the way of somebody getting it and allowing it to go and it ends up a goal.
"The referee got in his way. Maybe you just have to say that the referee was in a really bad position. Sometimes it’s as simple as that, you might have to say: ‘No, the referee got himself in a really bad position’. He got himself in a position where the ball comes - and, to be fair, Tomas Soucek should’ve cleared it better - it goes to Jarrod, and the referee’s right in his line. Jarrod can’t round the referee to get the ball."
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