Manchester City fined £120,000 over Simon Hooper incident in Tottenham Hotspur draw

Manchester City have been fined £120,000 by the Football Association after several players surrounded referee Simon Hooper during the Citizens' 3-3 draw against Tottenham Hotspur at the Etihad Stadium earlier this month.

Pep Guardiola side were forced to settle for a just a point for the third successive Premier League game after Dejan Kulusevski netted a stoppage-time equaliser for Spurs just over three weeks ago.

However, in the dying embers of the thrilling contest, Man City were denied the opportunity to score a winner when on-field referee Hooper decided to blow his whistle for a foul on Erling Haaland when Jack Grealish raced through on goal.

Hooper initially played advantage after Haaland was fouled by Emerson Royal inside City's half, but as the Norwegian regained his footing and sent Grealish through on Tottenham's goal, the official decided to pull play back, much to the frustration of the Citizens players and supporters.

Haaland was booked after venting his anger directly in the face of Hooper as several other Man City players swarmed around the referee questioning why he blew his whistle at that moment.

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Guardiola refused to condemn the actions of his players after the match, but Man City have now received a financial penalty from the FA for failing to control their players.

A statement from the FA read: "Manchester City FC have been fined £120,000 after their players surrounded a match official at the Premier League game against Tottenham Hotspur FC on Sunday 3 December.

"Manchester City FC admitted that they failed to ensure their players did not behave in an improper way during the 94th minute.

"An independent Regulatory Commission imposed this sanction following a hearing."

PGMOL chief Howard Webb admitted last week that Hooper was left "devastated" by the incident and has acknowledged that he made a mistake.

"It is an officiating mistake and the VAR has no part to play in this," Webb said on Match Officials Mic'd Up as quoted by the Daily Mail. "For sure he was devastated. He had refereed the game really well for 93 minutes but he knows this is going to be the only talking point really close to the end of the game.

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"I understand the disappointment that Manchester City felt on this one because it would have been a wonderful advantage. He just formed the opinion to blow just at the wrong time.

"It looked like he was ready to play advantage. You never heard him shout advantage. I asked him about the arm, he said he didn't even realise he was doing it in the moment.

"Disappointing for Simon, he would have loved to have played advantage to him there. I said to him afterwards, 'Just hold your hands up'.

"It's difficult to be annoyed at a remorseful man, show your disappointment in the moment because he was certainly feeling that at the time. We took the learning from it and hopefully he'll not do it again."

Man City have since won just one of their last three Premier League games and remain fourth in the table, five points adrift of leaders Arsenal.

The Citizens now turn their attention to Club World Cup duty and have landed in Saudi Arabia ahead of Tuesday's semi-final clash with Japanese side Urawa Red Diamonds.