Newcastle midfielder Lee Bowyer was fined six weeks’ wages on this day in 2005 for fighting with team-mate Kieron Dyer during a 3-0 defeat by Aston Villa.
Bowyer appeared to be the aggressor in the extraordinary scenes at St James’ Park, resulting in the England midfielder being severely censured by his club and warned as to his future conduct.
Both players were sent off and Bowyer was banned for six games by the Football Association as well as being fined by the governing body, lifting the total amount of fines he paid for the incident to £280,000.
Northumbria Police pressed charges and in 2006 Newcastle magistrates issued a £600 fine and ordered Bowyer to pay £1,000 in costs for the offence of “causing harassment, alarm or distress”.
“A moment of madness. Do I regret it? Of course I do. Nobody wants to do that, especially on the big stage, but it’s passion,” said Bowyer when reflecting on the incident in 2022.
“Obviously people have opinions and it goes from one extreme to another, everyone puts two pence in – all of a sudden it was me and Kieron hated each other, but that wasn’t the case.”
