FA defend Rooney Euro appeal

By Danielle Joynson, Staff Reporter | 09 December 2011

The FA explain the different disciplinary systems of the English governing body and UEFA in an attempt to defend their decision to appeal Wayne Rooney's three-match ban.

The Football Association have protected their decision to appeal Wayne Rooney's three-match Euro 2012 ban following claims of double standards.

The governing body came under fire from the likes of Kenny Dalglish, who accused the organisation of contradicting their process in the Premier League.

England's officials have refuted these suggestions and outlined the different rule structure for the FA and UEFA.

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."

Rooney's initial ban was reduced to two matches following a hearing in Nyon yesterday.