FA reveal punishment for Leeds United director of football Victor Orta after Millwall incident

Victor Orta and James Mooney were charged by the game's authorities after incidents during the half-time break of the Whites' clash with Millwall last Tuesday.

The pair were alleged to have committed breaches of FA Rule E3 with their behaviour during separate incidents in the tunnel and both accepted the charges.

Along with their respective one-game bans, Orta received a £2,000 fine and Mooney was fined £700.

An FA spokesperson said: "Leeds United FC’s Director of Football, Victor Orta, and Head of Media and Communications, James Mooney, have been given immediate one-match stadium bans following separate breaches of FA Rule E3 during the club’s EFL Championship fixture against Millwall FC on 28/1/2020.

"Victor Orta admitted that his language and/or behaviour in the tunnel area at half time amounted to improper conduct and James Mooney admitted that his behaviour during a separate incident in the tunnel area at half time also amounted to improper conduct.

"Victor Orta and James Mooney have been fined £2,000 and £700 respectively.

When the charges were first brought a club spokesperson said: "Victor and James will accept the charges issued to them by the FA, both incidents show a lack of judgement but we do not believe that either party has used inappropriate language or acted aggressively. The club will not make any further comment at this time."

The officiating of the Lions clash, a game Leeds won 3-2 after being 2-0 down at the interval, came under scrutiny after a number of contentious decisions.

Millwall were awarded a goal-kick when keeper Bartosz Bialkowski saved a Stuart Dallas shot, and they later scored a penalty seconds after the ball appeared to go out of play.

Millwall boss Gary Rowett said in his post match press conference that referee Darren England had come under pressure at half-time.

He said: "I thought it was a difficult game for different reasons. There was a little bit of pressure on him at half-time. I won't go into too much detail on that and the fans put him under pressure because that's what they do here. It wasn't any of the coaching or playing staff, put it that way.

"We do the same at home. It's what it is. It was a difficult game to referee and in the first half we might've had our rub of the green. In the second half they certainly got the big decisions."

Leeds chief executive Angus Kinnear later revealed that the club had asked for a grand total of 17 incidents to be reviewed.

"The only negative from the match was that the standard of EFL officiating was once again brought into question," he said.

"While most of our feedback to the match official assessors this season has been around interpretation of the rules, some of the decisions against Millwall forced us to add 'simply not paying attention' to our list of concerns.

"I am confident that Leeds United provide the most comprehensive post-match feedback of any Championship club. Our report on the Millwall game highlighted 17 separate decisions that we felt were worthy of review and, to the credit of the assessors, they will review the video of each decision and provide a perspective in return."