Summary Rodgers was subsequently charged by the FA, alleging that his comments questioned Mason's integrity.
LONDON (AFP) - Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers has been fined �8,000 ($13,000, 9,677 euros) and warned about his future conduct after criticising a referee following his side s defeat at Manchester City last month.
Rodgers described the performance of referee Lee Mason and his officials during Liverpool s 2-1 loss on December 26 as "horrendous" and questioned why a referee from Greater Manchester had been appointed to oversee the match.
"Hopefully we won t have a Greater Manchester referee with Liverpool-Manchester games in future," Rodgers said.
"I was surprised we are playing in Manchester and have a referee from Greater Manchester. I am sure we won t get for Liverpool-Man City someone from the Wirral (near Liverpool)."
Rodgers was subsequently charged by the FA, which alleged that his comments questioned Mason s integrity. The former Swansea boss was fined on Thursday following a hearing by an FA independent regulatory commission.
"Following an Independent Regulatory Commission hearing today, Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers has been fined �8,000 and warned as to his future conduct after he admitted an FA misconduct charge," a statement on the FA s website confirmed.
"Rodgers was charged for a breach of FA Rule E3 in that his post-match comments following Liverpool s game at Manchester City on 26 December 2013 constituted improper conduct in that they called into question the integrity of the match referee, and/or implied that the match referee was motivated by bias; and/or brought the game into disrepute; and/or amounted to a failure to act in the best interests of the game."
Rodgers, speaking in the days after the City match, insisted he had been trying to make a valid point about how referees are assigned to matches in the Premier League.
"In terms of geography, I certainly wasn t questioning the integrity of referees," he said.
"It was more the logic of it in terms of having a referee from that part of the world refereeing a game in Manchester. "I wouldn t suspect that Mike Dean, from the Wirral, has refereed many games for Liverpool over the years."
