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Mansfield Town v Sheffield Wednesday pre-season friendly ends in fracas

Sheffield Wednesday forward Fernando Forestieri has been charged with using racist language in a pre-season friendly against Mansfield Town last summer by the Football Association.

In March, the 29-year-old was acquitted at Mansfield Magistrates Court of racially abusing Stags player Krystian Pearce before a mass brawl.

The FA has now charged the Italian with "allegedly using abusive and/or insulting words including reference to ethnic origin and/or colour and/or race".

Forestieri has until 14 June to respond to the charge.

The striker has already served a three-game ban for misconduct relating to the brawl in July 2018 at Field Mill. He was also fined £25,000.

Mansfield's Jacob Mellis also received a three-match suspension, while both clubs were fined following the melee.

Giving evidence in court in March, Forestieri denied using any racist terms.

"No, I never said that, I'm not like that," he said. "I was very sad because I'm not a racist. The first rule in football is to respect your colleagues."

In September 2012, Chelsea captain John Terry was banned for four matches and fined £220,000 by the FA for racially abusing QPR defender Anton Ferdinand.

Terry had been cleared of the same charge by Westminster Magistrates' Court two months earlier.