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Sol Campbell was today effectively found innocent of the charge levelled against him as a result of his flick at Man Utd's Djemba-Djemba during the Community Shield match back in August.
Sol had been charged with violent conduct. But the committee at today's disciplinary hearing decided to reduce the charge to one of "improper behaviour". This turnaround allowed Sol to plead guilty, with mitigation, and accept a fine as punishment with no suspension. See FA
website.
If the violent conduct charge had stood, the committee would have had little choice but to ban him, and then his participation in the England squad for this weekend would have been in question.
What with this, and the news that the England squad have agreed to go to Turkey for the game on Saturday despite their annoyance at the way Rio Ferdinand has been treated, I guess it's been a rare day of diplomatic success for the FA. But it's still hard to fathom their decision to let the timing of these 2 issues affect the run-up to such an important match.
Sol has also been warned as to his future conduct, and is reported to be happy with the "punishment". £20,000 sounds a lot, but it's about a day's wages to Campbell. Still, it's an extraordinary amount compared to the £1000 fine given to Rufus Brevett who had been charged with involvement in a mass confrontation, striking an opposition player, and deliberately barging into a policeman.
The FA are going to get some stick for this climb-down. We can only hope that they stick to their guns, because on this evidence we might not see any Arsenal players banned as a result of the incidents at the end of the Old Trafford game either! The Times puts a
different spin on things, suggesting that if the FA had been hard on Sol they'd have been left with nowhere to go when it came to Keown and his fiendish gang of gurners and nudgers. "If they plan to throw the book at Martin Keown and company, then a relatively slim volume lobbed gently in Campbell’s direction makes sense." We can only wait and see.
Incidentally, those players charged over "handbag-gate" (6 Arsenal, 2 United) have been given an extra 48 hours to respond to the charges because of the clubs' involvement in Europe (bizarre I know, but that's what the Telegraph says.
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