Simon Cardwell, 46, had faced a three-year exclusion from all football matches after hurling a paper cup in frustration at a decision during Norwich’s home game against Sheffield Wednesday in March.
The Owls fan, from Mansfield Road in Worksop, Nottinghamshire, pleaded guilty to a single charge of throwing a missile onto the pitch.
But at a hearing at Norwich Magistrates’ Court he contested a prosecution application for him to be made subject of a football banning order that would also require him to surrender his passport whenever England were playing overseas.
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District Judge Matthew Bone said the application must be granted unless it was deemed “unjust” to do so.
Sarah Fiddy, prosecuting, said he had already been banned by the South Yorkshire side from attending their home matches at Hillsborough.
Owls fan Simon Cardwell was spared a three-year football banning order (Image: Newsquest)
The court was told the cup he had thrown had been empty at the time and had not hit anyone.
His defence argued a three-year ban would adversely affect his business providing corporate hospitality at events and which involved short-notice travel to Portugal.
He had attended matches since the age of 15 with no previous offences and had previously sponsored players at Sheffield Wednesday and Worksop Town FC, they added.
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District Judge Bone said although he had acted “recklessly” in throwing the cup he was persuaded it would be unjust to impose a ban.
Borja Sainz and Ante Crnac opened the scoring but Norwich City collapsed to a 3-2 defeat in the match (Image: Focus Images)
No one had been injured and he had a “long history of football support without incident”, he added.
He fined him £200 and told him to pay costs of £165.
The Canaries lost the match 3-2 after surrendering a 2-0 lead to allow Wednesday to pull off a comeback win with three second half goals.