West Ham winger Mohammed Kudus has been handed a further two-match ban after admitting a charge of violent conduct following his red card against Tottenham last month.
The additional suspension takes his ban to five games in total, and means he will be ineligible to play until the Hammers’ match against Leicester on December 3. The Ghanaian has also been fined £60,000.
Kudus sparked a melee in the 82nd minute of the match on October 19 with his foul on Spurs’ Mickey Van de Ven.
West Ham United and Mohammed Kudus have been sanctioned in relation to incidents during their Premier League fixture against Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday 19 October.
Full statement: https://t.co/7Mt6s1XNh4 pic.twitter.com/eNXeBmDMhU
— FA Spokesperson (@FAspokesperson) November 6, 2024
West Ham were fined £30,000 over the behaviour of their players in that incident.
The red card Kudus was shown following a VAR review triggered an immediate three-game ban.
Kudus was sent off for lashing out at Van de Ven, with the FA charge relating to him subsequently striking Pape Sarr in the face.
Kudus apologised for the incident in his submission to the independent panel hearing his case, saying he was “deeply embarrassed” by his behaviour in the 20 seconds following the foul on Van de Ven.
“He accepted that he had lost his cool and said that his behaviour was out of character,” the written reasons in the case state.
“He stated that he could not recall the events clearly, but having viewed the footage, he felt that MvdV had exaggerated the incident as there was minimal contact from him.”
Kudus said the build-up to the match had been “mentally challenging” because he had been away on international duty and had received negative comments on social media.
The FA pushed for a further three-game ban for the Sarr incident, but this was reduced to two matches because two members of the three-person panel felt his admission of the charge and his previous good disciplinary record should serve as mitigation.
