Giggs to discover his fate today

Ryan Giggs will find out later this afternoon whether he will be be suspended from Wales’ opening World Cup qualifiers next year.

European governing body UEFA are this morning completing their investigation into the Manchester United midfielder’s misconduct charge for an alleged elbow on Russia full-back Vadim Evseev during the Euro 2004 play-off match in Moscow.

The Russian Football Union (RFU) rushed a video of the incident to UEFA with a view to having Giggs banned for the second leg in Cardiff four days later.

While that immediate suspension did not materialise and the RFU subsequently withdrew their complaint, UEFA still heard the case, along with a number of disciplinary matters, in Nyon yesterday.

Should UEFA’s control and disciplinary body find the charge proven, Wales could be robbed of the services of their influential winger for the start of the 2006 World Cup qualifiers in September, the draw for which will be made later today in Frankfurt.

The control and disciplinary body is chaired by Spaniard Josep Lluís Vilaseca Guasch. Two of the other nine members are Scottish Football Association chief executive David Taylor and the general secretary of the Irish Football Association, David Bowen.

The Football Association of Wales, meanwhile, insist Giggs was heavily provoked beforehand and that he made minimal contact with the Russian, whose goal in the second leg in Cardiff settled the tie.

“We will be very disappointed if Ryan Giggs is suspended,” FAW general secretary David Collins said yesterday.

“We think very much that the Russian player was guilty of gross simulation. From our point of view, we hope he will survive to play for us again in the 2006 qualifiers.”

If Giggs is found guilty, it would be an unhappy end to a troubled week for a player who was fined £7,500 by the Football Association for his part in the fracas after the Barclaycard Premiership game against Arsenal at Old Trafford on September 21.

Giggs and United are still considering whether to appeal against that punishment.