Nuno Espirito Santo will be in the dugout when Nottingham Forest face Fulham at the City Ground on Saturday.
Forest have requested more time to submit their observations after the Football Association (FA) charged their head coach following angry scenes in the aftermath of Morgan Gibbs-White’s 83rd-minute red card at Brighton on Sunday.
The FA has given the club until Wednesday, October 2 to provide those.
Nuno is likely to request a hearing into the incident, which saw him sent off following his angry reaction to seeing referee Rob Jones show a second yellow card to Gibbs-White, following his challenge on Joao Pedro, after consulting with fourth official Anthony Taylor.
Nuno stated that the Key Match Incidents Panel (KMIP) voted by 3-2 that the decision to dismiss Gibbs-White was incorrect, following a firm but fair challenge. The KMIP — is an independent panel made up of former players and coaches, as well as one representative from the Premier League and another from Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) — the body that organises refereeing in England — which reviews the major decisions in the league each week. Forest are likely to use the KMIP’s decision as mitigation for Nuno’s angry response on the touchline.
Nuno confirmed that he did go into the referee’s room afterwards to apologise to the match officials.
“It’s very difficult for managers to control their emotions sometimes, it happens with a lot of managers,” Nuno said on Thursday. “It’s an emotional game, it was an emotional situation, an emotional part of the game, sometimes it’s hard.
“I had the chance to apologise for my behaviours. I think it was accepted. I will try hard not to repeat it.
“We will respond to the charges. I think we deserve an opportunity to answer our view on the incident and we will do so as a club.”
Nuno and Gibbs-White were charged with acting in an improper manner and/or using abusive and/or insulting words.
Nuno already has a suspended one-match ban hanging over him, which came after he was critical of the match officials following Forest’s 2-0 defeat at Everton in April, when Forest had three penalty claims rejected. That punishment was suspended until May 26, on the condition that Nuno did not breach the rules again.
(George Wood/Getty Images)
