Barton handed 12-match ban for City meltdown
QPR captain may appeal sentence that will see him miss third of next season after FA finds him guilty
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Your support makes all the difference.The Football Association yesterday banned Joey Barton for the first 12 games of next season. The Queen's Park Rangers captain, who is understood to be considering an appeal, will miss nearly a third of the 2012-13 campaign, as a result of three incidents in Rangers' defeat by Manchester City 11 days ago.
In the second half of QPR's last game of the season, at the Etihad Stadium, Barton was involved in a scuffle with Carlos Tevez, in which he elbowed the City striker in the neck. He was sent off by the referee, Mike Dean; the midfielder then kicked Sergio Aguero to the ground, before thrusting his head towards Vincent Kompany.
The incident with Tevez carried a four-match ban, as it was Barton's second violent conduct offence of the season. The other two incidents pushed the ban up to 12 games; Barton was also given a £75,000 fine. Barton accepted the charge regarding the Aguero incident but denied the one involving Kompany at a personal hearing yesterday. The independent regulatory commission, however, banned him for another eight games for those two incidents, to run consecutively with the four games for the initial red card. The length of the ban is understood to be the key reason for Barton's possible appeal
The chairman of the commission said: "There are rules of conduct that should be adhered to and such behaviour tarnishes the image of football in this country."
Barton has been given the longest bans for on-pitch offences for some years. Paolo Di Canio, then of Sheffield Wednesday, was banned for 11 games for pushing a referee in 1998 and Southampton's David Prutton was suspended for 10 games for a similar offence in 2005. Earlier this season, Luis Suarez of Liverpool received an eight-game ban for using racially abusive language towards Manchester United's Patrice Evra. United's Eric Cantona was suspended for eight months after his kung fu kick on a Crystal Palace fan in 1995.
QPR may struggle to move Barton on, as he has three years left on a generous contract. The club are conducting their own investigation – whether Barton's conduct constitutes a breach of contract which would give the club grounds to dismiss him is unclear. The possibility of clubs sacking players for misconduct is an issue senior figures at the FA, including the chairman, David Bernstein, have been discussing. "The question of the nature of the contract and when a breach has arisen is an interesting one," Bernstein said recently. "I hope it will be tested."
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