FA chiefs to rule on Ball’s stamp on Ronaldo

FA disciplinary chiefs will decide today whether Michael Ball should be hit with the charge of serious foul play for his stamp on Cristiano Ronaldo.

Officials from the FA’s compliance department are likely to either charge the Manchester City player with violent conduct or serious foul play.

The latter carries a stiffer punishment and was the charge brought against Ben Thatcher after his elbow assault on Portsmouth’s Pedro Mendes which led to an eight-match ban.

FA disciplinary chiefs will today view television footage of the incident, which happened during Saturday’s Manchester derby, and a disciplinary hearing is likely to take place on Thursday.

An apparent head butt by Fulham’s Michael Brown on Liverpool’s Xabi Alonso will also be investigated, it was confirmed.

An FA spokesman said: “We will look at the television footage of the incidents tomorrow and ask the officials what action they would have taken had they seen the incidents, and any charges will be based on that.”

If charges are announced today, the players will have until tomorrow to respond and under the fast-track system a disciplinary hearing would take place on Thursday.

Manchester United boss Alex Ferguson has condemned Ball for the incident. At the time, Ferguson launched a furious tirade at the assistant referee closest to the United dug-out. However, it was only when he got home later on that he fully appreciated what Ball had done.

“They told me at the time the lad had stamped on him but it wasn’t until the night time I actually saw what he did,” said Ferguson.

“I could not believe it. I don’t know what got into him. It was the first minute of the game. I don’t know if it was instructions, or he was hyped up. It was incredible. The game has changed since the 1960s, when there was a lot of really vicious tackling but you don’t see that kind of thing nowadays. Cameras are everywhere.”

City boss Stuart Pearce said he would review the incident.