Adam Dennehey WAFU manager
Disappointingly Wayne Rooney has been given a three-match ban by UEFA after his red-card against Montenegro which rules him out of the Euro 2012 group stages.
Whilst everyone can agree that the referee in England’s draw on Friday – Wolfgang Stark – was right to send Rooney off, UEFA’s disciplinary panel has set themselves up for a fall here by giving the man labelled as England’s star player a three-match ban.
Apparently whenever a player is sent off for violent conduct, UEFA’s policy is to suspend the player for one game immediately and then a panel decides afterwards, if any, additional punishment should be handed out.
Panel officials take into account the referee’s report, representations from the player and national body (in this case England’s FA) involved and the player’s past discipline record.
The Football Association, as ever, have quickly given their take on the ban:
“Further to UEFA’s decision to impose a three-match suspension on Wayne Rooney, The FA awaits the full reasons from the disciplinary committee, and will give full consideration to the decision internally, before deciding on any response to UEFA or making any further public comment.”
Whilst there’s no doubt that the FA will appeal the decision, it will be a major surprise if UEFA change their stance on Rooney’s ban and reduce it to a two-match ban.
It shall be interesting to see how they deal with similar events in the future as if they don’t hand a player a three-match ban, it’s going to look as if they are just being ‘anti-English’ which is a criticism that has been labelled at UEFA in the past by not only fans but journalists as well.
If the FA are unable to get Rooney’s ban reduced, then even with his outstanding talent and match-winning ability, it would put Fabio Capello in a stronger position should he opt to leave Rooney out of his 23-man squad for the finals next year in Poland and Ukraine.
By Adam Dennehey @ADennehey87
