Keane gets five-match ban and record fine

ROY KEANE won’t be back playing for Manchester United until early December after the FA last night fined him stg£150,000 and gave him a five-match ban.

The United skipper was found guilty of two disrepute charges by a FA disciplinary committee relating to a tackle on Manchester City midfielder Alfie Haaland in April 2001.

The 31-year-old has 14 days to appeal against the punishment, which will start on November 4.

The club yesterday expressed its disappointment at the five-match ban handed and is considering whether to appeal against the punishment.

United club director and solicitor Maurice Watkins, flanked by Keane and United boss Sir Alex Ferguson, said: "Clearly after the arguments put forward in Roy's defence we are disappointed with the verdict.

"After such a long day, now is not the time to make quick decisions so we will be reviewing the question of appeal over the next few days."

United boss Ferguson felt before yesterday Keane was three weeks away from fitness following a hip operation, and that would now coincide with the ban should it come into effect.

If he did serve the ban and pay the fine a record financial punishment imposed by the FA it is expected he would be eligible again for United's crunch match against Arsenal on December 7.

Keane was found guilty of being "improperly motivated by an element of revenge" when he committed his horrific tackle on Haaland in a match in April 2001 and of then cashing in on it by revealing in his controversial autobiography that it had been an act of vengeance.

The former Republic of Ireland captain was found guilty by a three-man FA committee sitting at the Reebok Stadium in Bolton yesterday.

Eamon Dunphy, the ghost-writer of Keane's book and a high-ranking official from his book publishers, Penguin, spoke on Keane's behalf in a hearing which lasted almost seven hours.