Keane still in limbo

Manchester United insist that Roy Keane still has another week to decide whether he will appeal his five-match ban and £150,000 (€235,500) fine from the FA.

However, according to the club’s website, Keane is unlikely to take up that option.

“The deadline for Roy Keane to appeal against a five-match FA ban and £150,000 fine ends next Friday at 5pm,” claimed www.manutd.com.

“Media reports claimed that Friday 1 November was the deadline for an appeal, but United have confirmed that the cut-off point is actually next Friday, 8 November.

“As predicted by Alex Ferguson last week, the United skipper is unlikely to lodge an appeal against the FA disrepute charges.

If no appeal is submitted by tea time, Keane will be ready to return to domestic action on December 7 for the titanic Premiership clash with Arsenal.

Keane, still recovering from hip surgery, begins his ban on November 5 missing the visit of Leicester City in the Worthington Cup and the Premiership games against Manchester City, West Ham, Newcastle and Liverpool.

Keane could return for the Champions League match against Bayer Leverkusen on November 13, injuries permitting.

Red-faced Football Association officials will spend the weekend trying to sort out Keane’s ban bungle.

Just 24 hours after chief executive Adam Crozier resigned amid acrimony over his autocratic role within the game’s governing body, the FA confirmed on their official website that the deadline for the 31-year-old United skipper to appeal had passed with no reply.

However, they were immediately informed that Keane’s legal representatives were in possession of a letter – dated October 25 – from the FA confirming the player had 14 days, from that date, to appeal, effectively November 8.

After initially rejecting the existence of the letter, the FA have now pledged to solve the mystery, which has left them embarrassed and Keane laughing up his sleeve.

It had been thought the 14-day appeal period would run from the date of the original hearing at the Reebok Stadium, October 15.

United manager Alex Ferguson was the first man to cast doubt on that belief, stating in Monday’s pre-match press conference ahead of the Champions League clash with Maccabi Haifa that he believed the deadline had been extended to Thursday.

The following day, the FA confirmed that – in their eyes – Keane had until the end of office hours last night to contact them, thinking, incorrectly, that the letter confirming the player’s punishment had been issued on October 18.

Consequently, just after 5.30pm yesterday evening, the following statement appeared on the official FA website, www.thefa.com:

“At 5.30pm, the Football Association had not received an appeal from Roy Keane regarding the five-match suspension and £150,000 fine brought against the Manchester United player at a disciplinary hearing on Tuesday, October 15.

“Roy Keane had 14 days in which to respond from Friday, October 18, the date on which he was sent official notification of the hearing’s findings.

“Keane’s ban is due to start on November 4.”

The irony of the situation is that privately, United officials want their captain to accept his punishment and let the controversies raised by his book to die down.

It is still not known whether Keane will heed their advice but even if he now accepts the ban – which is due to start on Monday – he will enjoy a private chuckle at the FA’s expense this evening.

At the hearing, he was found guilty on two disrepute charges relating to comments made in his autobiography surrounding a tackle on Manchester City midfielder Alfie Haaland at Old Trafford last year.

A three-man disciplinary panel agreed that Keane had made an ‘improperly motivated’ tackle on the Norwegian and had then profited from it by offering a graphic illustration of the incident in his book.

It is believed that Keane claimed he had never said the actual words used in the book and they had been incorrectly paraphrased by ghost-writer Eamon Dunphy, who was called as a witness to speak on his behalf.

Haaland has not completed a full match since the incident, although his troubles centre around an injury to his other knee, which the City man feels was exacerbated by Keane’s challenge.

At the time of the original hearing, City chairman David Bernstein said he was ’monitoring the situation’ and legal investigations were ongoing.

Should the ban finally be invoked, Keane will not be eligible for a Premiership return until the visit of Arsenal to Old Trafford on December 7.

However, Ferguson has pencilled his inspirational captain in for a European comeback against Bayer Leverkusen on November 13, and there is also the possibility of an outing in the second group stage of the competition at the end of the month.