After a disciplinary hearing in Bolton yesterday the English Football Association found Roy Keane guilty on two charges of disrepute, the second related to his autobiography, ghost written by Eamon Dunphy.
The Manchester United captain's punishment was a five-match ban and a £150,000 fine, which amounts to approximately two weeks' wages.
The disrepute charges related to Keane's tackle on Alfie Haaland in the Manchester derby in April 2001, which, the FA contended, was "improperly motivated by an apparent element of revenge". It also charged the player with attempting to "financially profit or reward" from the incident by writing about it in his book, although Dunphy later admitted he had used "artistic licence" when "quoting" Keane's description of the tackle.
Keane's ban will start on November 4th, but he has a right of appeal, so long as it is lodged within 14 days. Manchester United director and solicitor Mr Maurice Watkins, who accompanied Keane to the hearing yesterday, said he was "disappointed" with the verdict but would take a few days to decide whether to lodge an appeal. Keane was also represented at the hearing by his own lawyer, Mr Michael Kennedy, and Mr Thomas Shields QC.
Earlier in the day, United manager Alex Ferguson was a character witness for Keane, while Dunphy also gave evidence on his behalf in an attempt to distance the player from the language used in the book to describe his run-in with Haaland.
Keane, out of action after a hip operation, will be available for United's Champions League group games for the duration of his ban but will miss one Worthington Cup tie (against Leicester) and four league games (against Manchester City, West Ham, Newcastle and Liverpool). He will be back, fitness permitting, for the December 7th fixture at Old Trafford against Arsenal.
It proved to be a busy day at the Reebok stadium, home of Bolton Wanderers, for the Danish media who had travelled to hear the verdict. "Four months in jail," they gasped, mobile phones trembling in their hands. "Jeez, Dunphy," might well have been the response, "you've a lot to answer for". But no. "Bolton's Danish midfielder Stig Tofting has got four months for head butting the manager of Cafe Ketchup (a Copenhagen restaurant) and punching one of its chefs."
"Stig is kind of Denmark's equivalent of Roy Keane," explained Danish journalist Ulla Teraelsom, who had just heard the news about Tofting while waiting for the Keane verdict. "He's one of the old-school footballers. Not like the Laudrups or Beckhams. He's hard."
But jail now beckons for the Danish hard-man, and his Irish equivalent thought he had problems? The FA, as it turned out, was somewhat more lenient on Keane.
