Card-happy referee Steve Martin is expected to have cost Stoke City a £5,000 fine with his controversial performance at Middlesbrough. Stafford-based Martin surprised pretty much all of a 24,610-strong crowd at the Riverside as he showed his yellow card an incredible 11 times in a game that never threatened to boil over - to the point that new Stoke head coach Narcis Pelach's first answer in his post-match press conference was to talk about the need for more aggression. The officials were also criticised for decisions which led to the opening goal; an alleged foul by Lewis Koumas on Emmanuel Latte Lath and an offside call against Ben Doak, although no one in the Stoke camp was suggesting this would have changed the result on what was a tough afternoon.
Stoke received seven cautions and that means a £5k penalty from the FA. If they receive six or more bookings in any further fixture this season the fine will be doubled to £10,000 and it would increase by a further £5k with every repeat. The FA disciplinary regulations rulebook states: "The Association will take disciplinary action against a club if six or more of the club’s players are either cautioned or sent off in a match falling within Category 1 or Category 3.
On the first occasion that this happens in a playing season, the Association may offer the club a standard punishment [of £5,000 for any Championship club]. "For each successive occasion that this happens in the same playing season, the standard punishment of.
