Joey Barton was punished with a 12-match Football Association ban on Wednesday, the most severe sanction for an on-field incident in English football since Eric Cantona’s kung-fu kick on a Crystal Palace fan in 1995.
Punished: the FA have come down hard on Joey Barton after his behaviour against Man City Photo: AFP
6:32PM BST 23 May 2012
67 Comments
The suspension, which relates to his sending off against Manchester City in
their 3-2
defeat and subsequent reaction, means that the Queens Park Rangers
midfielder is now unlikely to return to football until November.
Barton received an automatic four-match ban for the initial elbow on Carlos
Tévez that led to his sending-off. That was increased by a further eight
matches for two counts of violent conduct, firstly for kicking Sergio Agüero
and then an attempted butt on Vincent Kompany.
The total 12-match suspension dwarfs recent eight-game bans for Luis Suárez
following his racist abuse of Patrice Evra and Ben Thatcher for a forearm
smash on Pedro Mendes.
Barton attended Wednesday’s Wembley hearing with his lawyer, Mel Stein, and
could still appeal against the sanction. He had accepted the first count of
violent conduct in relation to the Agüero kick but had denied the same
charge for the Kompany incident.
A three-man independent regulatory commission, however, found that both
charges were proved. “There are rules of conduct that should be adhered to,
and such behaviour tarnishes the image of football in this country,
particularly as this match was the pinnacle of the domestic season and
watched by millions around the globe,” said the chairman of the commission.
Barton’s future at QPR is now in serious doubt. The club intend to push ahead
with their own inquiry into the incident, with manager Mark Hughes also
certain to strip Barton of the captaincy. Hughes would like to sell Barton
but that will be difficult after he was awarded an £80,000-a-week contract
last summer that lasts until 2015.
Hughes, though, is now highly unlikely to include Barton in his 25-man Premier League squad for next season and he is expected to be asked to train with the reserves. The hope is that Barton will at least then be prepared to leave in January. QPR’s inquiry will involve employing professionals from outside the club.
There has also been annoyance at QPR over Barton’s subsequent Twitter reaction to the incident. He said that he did not think it was a sending-off and then claimed that, once he had been dismissed, one of his team-mates had suggested he “try to take 1 of theirs with me”.
Barton added: “Still not my proudest moment but who gives a ----, we are safe..........and that is all that matters. The head was never gone at any stage.”
Hughes, though, had already decided before Barton’s latest act of indiscipline that the midfielder was not part of his plans and should leave for the good of the club. He has lost patience with Barton, who has also performed poorly this season.
QPR will examine the legal situation over Barton’s contract and are weighing up their options but chairman Tony Fernandes and chief executive Phil Beard are aware of Hughes’s thinking.
Hughes had wanted to take the armband from Barton during the season but eventually only decided against it because he thought the 29 year-old would, potentially, be more disruptive.
Wednesday was only the latest chapter in a long list of disciplinary incidents involving Barton.
In 2004, he was fined six weeks’ wages for stubbing a lit cigar in the of youth team player Jamie Tandy during Manchester City’s Christmas party.
In 2007, he was charged with assault and given a four-month suspended sentence after a training-ground fight with Ousmane Dabo. He was also jailed over a late night-incident in Liverpool city centre for which he received a six-month sentence after pleading guilty to common assault and affray.
He was transfer-listed by Newcastle last summer following a series of Twitter comments criticising the club. In addition to his 12-match ban, Barton was also fined £75,000 Wednesday for his behaviour in the Manchester City match.
“This eight-match suspension is to run consecutively to the four-game suspension Barton was already given for his dismissal in the fixture, making a total of 12 matches,” said an FA statement. “Following Barton’s dismissal in the 54th minute of the match, there followed two incidents involving Manchester City’s Sergio Aguero and Vincent Kompany. As Barton had already been dismissed, both of these incidents fell outside the jurisdiction of the referee.”
A charge of violent conduct generally results in a three-match ban but yesterday’s commission ruled that the incidents involving Aguero and Kompany were sufficiently serious to warrant a combined eight-game sanction.
Barton’s indiscipline could have cost QPR their place in the Premier League and, with the match 1-1 at the time of his sending-off, was surely a factor in Manchester City ultimately gaining the 3-2 victory they needed to beat Manchester United to the Premier League title.
Gordon Taylor, the chief executive of the Professional Footballers' Association, said on Wednesday night that his organisation had been in contact with Barton since the incident against Manchester City but that he had refused the offer of help.
Hughes, though, is now highly unlikely to include Barton in his 25-man Premier League squad for next season and he is expected to be asked to train with the reserves. The hope is that Barton will at least then be prepared to leave in January. QPR’s inquiry will involve employing professionals from outside the club.
There has also been annoyance at QPR over Barton’s subsequent Twitter reaction to the incident. He said that he did not think it was a sending-off and then claimed that, once he had been dismissed, one of his team-mates had suggested he “try to take 1 of theirs with me”.
Barton added: “Still not my proudest moment but who gives a ----, we are safe..........and that is all that matters. The head was never gone at any stage.”
Hughes, though, had already decided before Barton’s latest act of indiscipline that the midfielder was not part of his plans and should leave for the good of the club. He has lost patience with Barton, who has also performed poorly this season.
QPR will examine the legal situation over Barton’s contract and are weighing up their options but chairman Tony Fernandes and chief executive Phil Beard are aware of Hughes’s thinking.
Hughes had wanted to take the armband from Barton during the season but eventually only decided against it because he thought the 29 year-old would, potentially, be more disruptive.
Wednesday was only the latest chapter in a long list of disciplinary incidents involving Barton.
In 2004, he was fined six weeks’ wages for stubbing a lit cigar in the of youth team player Jamie Tandy during Manchester City’s Christmas party.
In 2007, he was charged with assault and given a four-month suspended sentence after a training-ground fight with Ousmane Dabo. He was also jailed over a late night-incident in Liverpool city centre for which he received a six-month sentence after pleading guilty to common assault and affray.
He was transfer-listed by Newcastle last summer following a series of Twitter comments criticising the club. In addition to his 12-match ban, Barton was also fined £75,000 Wednesday for his behaviour in the Manchester City match.
“This eight-match suspension is to run consecutively to the four-game suspension Barton was already given for his dismissal in the fixture, making a total of 12 matches,” said an FA statement. “Following Barton’s dismissal in the 54th minute of the match, there followed two incidents involving Manchester City’s Sergio Aguero and Vincent Kompany. As Barton had already been dismissed, both of these incidents fell outside the jurisdiction of the referee.”
A charge of violent conduct generally results in a three-match ban but yesterday’s commission ruled that the incidents involving Aguero and Kompany were sufficiently serious to warrant a combined eight-game sanction.
Barton’s indiscipline could have cost QPR their place in the Premier League and, with the match 1-1 at the time of his sending-off, was surely a factor in Manchester City ultimately gaining the 3-2 victory they needed to beat Manchester United to the Premier League title.
Gordon Taylor, the chief executive of the Professional Footballers' Association, said on Wednesday night that his organisation had been in contact with Barton since the incident against Manchester City but that he had refused the offer of help.