Ipswich Town: Wolves forward Matheus Cunha handed reduced by FA after paying for Blues security guard’s glasses following brawl

Wolves forward Matheus Cunha has been handed a reduced ban by the Football Association after paying for an Ipswich Town security guard’s glasses following a post-match brawl.

The Brazilian equalised for his side against Kieran McKenna’s men in the Premier League on December 14, but Jack Taylor's stoppage-time header saw the Blues claim a late victory at Molineux.

Cunha was charged by the FA with misconduct following an altercation where he snatched the glasses off the face of a security guard after the final whistle.

He was suspended for two games and given an £80,000 fine.

A regulatory commission initially considered dealing the 25-year-old attacker with a £120,000 fine and a three game ban, but in their written reasons, the commission agreed Cunha's acceptance of the charge, his sincere personal apology and the offer to pay for new glasses were mitigating factors.

The commission also wrote: “The Commission unanimously agreed that a significant financial penalty was also appropriate, given the serious nature of the incident.

"It initially considered that a fine of £120,000 would be commensurate with the offence. However, it took account of the mitigating factors and decided to apply a similar 'discount' to that applied to the sporting sanction.

“It concluded that a fine of £80,000 would be appropriate."

In his evidence, Cunha apologised to the Town security guard and gave his account of the events, which he claimed came about after he his teammate Rayan Ait-Nouri, who was shown a second yellow card in the post-match brawl, was surrounded by the Blues’ security for no reason he could see.

He said: “As I tried to get closer to Rayan to make sure he was okay, I was suddenly surrounded by a lot of people.

“I felt like I was being shoved by the ITFC security personnel, so I shoved them back in an effort to break away from them to protect myself.

“It was never my intention to come into contact with Mr [redacted] and I certainly never meant to elbow him. I simply wanted to push him away from Rayan.

“Then all of a sudden, I remember Mr [redacted] turned round and had his hands on my shirt, and I shouted ‘stop’ but he kept hold of my shirt.

“Mr [redacted] is much bigger than me and I was surrounded by a large number of people, mainly ITFC personnel, so I remember feeling quite threatened at the time.

“So in an effort to get Mr [redacted] to let go of my shirt, in the heat of the moment, I regrettably reached out and grabbed his glasses.”

Cunha added: “I know it was wrong to do this and I take full responsibility for my actions.”