Stoke City manager Mark Hughes has labelled the person said to have thrown a coin at goalkeeper Jack Butland an "idiot" but says the problem has been constant in English football.
The Football Association (FA) are investigating alleged incidents of coin throwing during Stoke's win over Aston Villa on Saturday as well as QPR's Championship victory against Birmingham City on the same day.
A person was arrested after a coin was thrown at West Brom's Chris Brunt during their FA Cup defeat at Reading, with Stoke goalkeeper Butland said to have been on the receiving end at the weekend.
Amid an ongoing FA investigation, Hughes added: "I think the referee was reporting it, I don't know if he has officially, but the truth is I haven't had an update.
"We know something was thrown in Jack Butland's direction and the referee needed to make a note of it. Some idiot has seen that it has happened before and thought it would be funny to do it here.
"Unfortunately there are people out there who take pleasure and amusement from hurting other individuals. It's a sad state of affairs.
"I was the victim of it myself when I was a player - it is something that has always happened unfortunately."
The apparent incident involving Butland came during a hard-earned 2-1 win over rock-bottom Villa in the Premier League as Marko Arnautovic's brace sealed the points.
The Austrian's contact expires next season and Hughes hinted at frustration over the ongoing wait to agree fresh terms.
"It is difficult to get everybody in the same room at the same time," he added. "It can take a while to sort that out. After one meeting concludes it takes a while to sort another. We are in between meetings at the moment.
"He has had a good season. The one area of his game that he was lacking was scoring goals. Thankfully he has added that to his game and that is maybe why more people are sitting up and taking notice of him now.
"This can't be a one-off season, he needs to keep scoring goals, because if he does, he will be hugely successful with us."
