FA farce as Smith embarrassment followed by Beattie fiasco

FARCE descended into fiasco as the England Football Association were forced to review James Beattie’s place in the England squad due to a drink-drive conviction — just hours after he had replaced Alan Smith.

Smith was called up as a replacement for Darius Vassell on Thursday, only for the FA to throw him out of the squad shortly after learning of his arrest earlier in the day.

They were then even forced into emergency talks over Beattie's place soon after calling him up, but resolved to keep him in the squad as they were "not looking retrospectively at cases".