ERIK PIETERS has been fined £70,000 after going to a nightclub the day before a crucial game in Stoke’s battle to avoid relegation.
Pieters had been due to start last week’s vital game against Everton but was axed after it emerged he had been on a night out the day before.
Boss Paul Lambert was left fuming the 29-year-old decided to attend the launch party of a new exclusive club in Cheshire less than 24 hours before a game.
Pieters posed happily for pictures with his wife Nermina Pieters-Mekic, a reality television star on the programme Real Housewives of Cheshire, at the opening of Club Arvina in Hale.
But the sight of him on a night out just hours before such a vital match in the club’s bid to escape the drop into the Championship angered his club.
Lambert immediately dropped the left-back from his side for the game against Everton, which Stoke lost 2-1 to leave them second from bottom of the league.
He was hauled in for talks at the start of this week and left in no doubt his behaviour crossed the line.
Stoke have hit Pieters with the maximum fine of two weeks wages, £70,000, as punishment for the brazen way he broke the club’s curfew.
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Chairman Peter Coates said: “Erik is a very experienced player so we were extremely disappointed with him for going out before such a big game.
“We expect professionalism from all our players and Erik badly let us down on this occasion.”
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Lambert is known to be strict on discipline as a manager, and he is understood to have come down hard on the former Dutch international.
Now it remains to be seen whether the breach of curfew is taken as an isolated incident, or whether he will still play a part in the fight to avoid relegation.
Stoke are three points from safety with seven games remaining, and Pieters would have been regarded as a player with vital experience to help them bid to climb out of trouble.
But their next two matches are a trip to Arsenal and then a home tie with Champions League chasing Tottenham – when defeats could leave them cut adrift of their rivals for the dorp.
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