Ref remarks cost Souness £20,000

NEWCASTLE boss Graeme Souness is facing a touchline ban after being found guilty of bringing the game into disrepute with his furious comments about referee Barry Knight.

Souness has been fined £20,000 and handed a two-match ban, suspended for 12 months, following a damning assessment of the official's performance in his side's 2-0 Barclays Premiership defeat at Everton on May 7.

Should the fiery Scot - who was found guilty of improper conduct towards referee Howard Webb during the Magpies' 4-1 home defeat by Fulham on November 7 last year and fined £10,000 and suspended for one game - re-offend during that period, he will find himself watching from the directors' box.

"At an independent disciplinary commission hearing on Tuesday, Newcastle United manager Graeme Souness was fined £20,000 and received a two-match touchline ban, suspended for 12 months," said a statement on FA official website www.thefa.com.

"All or part of this suspension will be activated if he is found guilty of a similar charge."

Souness' latest outburst came at Goodison Park after Mr Knight, the man who had presided over the debacle against Aston Villa on April 2, found himself in the 52-year-old's sights once again.

It was the Kent official who, on a remarkable afternoon at St James' Park, had first dismissed defender Steven Taylor for deliberate handball and then red-carded both Lee Bowyer and Kieron Dyer for a punch-up.

He may have had little choice but to apply the ultimate sanction in each case, although the second of the two penalties he awarded that day and others that he might have given the home side were still fresh in the memory at Everton.

Knight gave Everton a dubious free-kick from which they scored their first goal and then sent off Shola Ameobi for aiming a blow at Tim Cahill.

FA disciplinary chiefs based their charge on Souness' television interviews, and he developed the theme in his post-match press conference.

"The referee was apologising to some of our lads before the game for the penalty he gave in that Aston Villa match," he said. "It was outside the box and he said that.

"That was the game when we had three players sent off out of extreme frustration. But Mr Knight escaped without any criticism that day and this time, he has given a free-kick to Everton that wasn't and it changed the game. There were other decisions he got wrong. We feel hard done by again because of Mr Knight. I won't defend Ameobi for what he did and when he was sent off, the game was over, but (Jean-Alain) Boumsong says it wasn't a foul on (Marcus) Bent when they scored their first."

Souness denied the charge, but did not request a personal hearing, and the verdict will have come as no surprise.

His attention, however, is elsewhere having sealed Scott Parker's £6.5m move from Chelsea to Tyneside yesterday, and he will now concentrate on his continuing efforts to rebuild his squad before the beginning of pre-season training on July 2.