FA stand by decision to appeal Rooney ban

FA stand by decision to appeal
Rooney ban
8 December 2011
The FA have defended their decision to
appeal the three-match ban handed to
Wayne Rooney in England's Euro 2012
qualifier in October.
Liverpool boss Kenny Dalglish had
accused the FA of double standards, as by
their rules, Rooney would have faced an
automatic three-game ban for his kick on
Montenegro defender Miodrag Dzudovic.
Rooney will now only face a two-match
suspension after his punishment was
reduced by one game, with the FA's
appeal in Nyon on Thursday proving
successful.
The reduction in his suspension means
Rooney will be available for England's
final Group D match against host nation
Ukraine, although he will miss games
against France on June 11 in Donetsk and
Sweden in Kiev on June 15.
An FA statement read: "To promote speed
and consistency, stakeholders in England
agreed a standard formula encompassing
a fixed penalty sanction should be
applied across the game by The FA."
"The system has been in operation for
many years and meets the demands of
the domestic game."
"The FA's system allows clubs to make a
claim of wrongful dismissal - to reduce a
sanction to zero - or appeal the severity
of a sanction, both of these processes are
dealt with prior to the player's next
fixture."
"UEFA chooses to operate a different
process for European matches, based on
a sliding scale, under which each sanction
is determined individually by a
disciplinary panel."
"In any event a minimum one-game ban
will always be applied by UEFA."
"This process meets the demands of UEFA
football where the period between
fixtures is greater than that in the
domestic game."