In the 94th minute of Arsenal’s FA Cup quarter-final exit at Southampton, Gabriel Martinelli received a yellow card for pushing referee Sam Barott in his endeavour to take a quick free kick – but why did a Fulham fan’s tweet go viral for resharing the incident on X?
Archie Rhind-Tutt, a Bundesliga reporter for ESPN and Fulham supporter, reposted the clip of Martinelli’s shove with a reminder that former Whites striker Alexander Mitrovic received an eight-match ban following a similar incident against Manchester United in 2023.
At the time of publication, the post had attracted more than 1.3 million views and 42,000 likes, underlining the lingering sense of injustice felt by many Fulham fans over the severity of Mitrovic’s punishment. More broadly, it also tapped into a wider frustration among supporters over what is seen as inconsistency in English officiating.
“I’m sure the FA will be consistent,” Rhind-Tutt quipped.
Retired FA referee Keith Hackett waded in on X, stating that “He (Martinelli) should have walked. You cannot put your hands on a referee.”
However, Martinelli is not expected to face retrospective action, as Mitrovic did three years ago. Hackett later explained that because the Arsenal forward was shown a yellow card, the FA are unable to intervene further under current regulations.
Mitrovic’s controversy also took place in an FA Cup quarter-final, and after the striker had put his side ahead, the game plunged into chaos when Willian was sent off for a handball in the box.
Head coach Marco Silva was dismissed for his protests. Then the red mist descended on Mitrovic, who passionately remonstrated with Chris Kavanagh and grasped the referee’s shoulder, triggering him to brandish a red card. The FA later imposed the lengthy ban.
United scored the penalty to level and went on to beat nine-man Fulham 3-1, denying the Londoners a second FA Cup semi-final in their history.
For many within the Fulham fanbase, the frustration is not that Mitrovic should have escaped punishment. Rather, it is the belief — rightly or wrongly — that similar incidents are not always judged in the same way, particularly when they involve players from bigger clubs.
Mitrovic’s confrontation with Kavanagh was more aggressive than Martinelli’s contact with Barrott, with the Serbian getting close to the referee’s face and forcing him to step backwards. Yet the length of the subsequent ban was widely viewed by those associated with Fulham to be excessive, with some feeling he was made an example of.
For context, Luis Suarez received an eight-match ban in 2011 for racially abusing Patrice Evra, while John Terry was suspended for four games in 2012 after being found guilty of using racist language towards Anton Ferdinand. Did Mitrovic’s actions warrant an equal or lesser ban than racial abuse?
Mitrovic had long carried a reputation as an emotional, combustible striker dating back to his time at Newcastle. That fire made him a cult hero at Craven Cottage, but notably, his dismissal at Old Trafford remains his only red card in a Fulham shirt.
Whether reputation played any part in the decision-making is impossible to prove. But among Fulham supporters, there remains a suspicion that previous perceptions of the striker may have influenced both the referee’s response and the scale of the punishment that followed.
For Fulham, the red card contributed to their collapse in one of the biggest cup ties in the club’s recent history, and the extended suspension deprived them of their talisman during the closing stages of the 2022-23 campaign.
That is why incidents such as Martinelli’s continue to resonate so strongly. For many Fulham fans, they revive memories of a painful afternoon at Old Trafford — and with them, the enduring feeling that the punishment did not fit the crime, and that not all clubs are treated equally.