Cole ban adds to Fulham's woes

Fulham’s season was plunged into further crisis today when the Football Association found Andrew Cole guilty of two charges of bringing the game into disrepute and doubled his suspension from three to six matches.

Cole, one of two Fulham players sent off in last month’s fiery Barclays Premiership clash with West Brom, was dismissed for throwing punches, including one attempted haymaker, following a clash with Baggies midfielder Neil Clement.

The former England striker has already served a three-match suspension but attended a disciplinary hearing held at the FA’s headquarters at Soho Square today and was found guilty of using abusive language to a match official and violent conduct.

For the abusive language Cole was given an extra two-match suspension, to start immediately, while the violent conduct carried a one-game ban. He was also slapped with a £10,000 (€14,500) fine, plus costs.

Fulham were tonight making no comment on the penalty, though its severity has alerted the Professional Footballers’ Association who were to make further enquiries before giving any reaction.

Cole, who was fined by the club for his dismissal, will now miss the crucial league fixtures against Liverpool and Aston Villa plus the Carling Cup tie at Birmingham as Fulham attempt to turn around their season.

They have secured just two victories and four defeats from their eight Premiership matches.

On Monday night, without Cole, Fulham became the first Premiership side to lose to Crystal Palace this season and had Ian Pearce sent off in the process.

Pearce became the fourth Fulham player to be dismissed in four matches, following the red cards shown to Cole and Papa Bouba Diop at The Hawthorns and Liam Rosenior in the Carling Cup win over Boston.

Manager Chris Coleman, facing a disciplinary charge himself for comments made after Fulham were beaten in controversial circumstances by Arsenal, now has the international break to ensure Fulham’s fraying edges do not unravel entirely.

He vowed to put his players through punishing training sessions but he will head into the visit of Liverpool and the trip to Villa, who are yet to lose at home, without Cole, his most experienced striker and the club’s leading goalscorer this season.

Coleman missed out on signing French World Cup winner Youri Djorkaeff – who opted to sign for Blackburn – and with Cole suspended, he will have to rely on Canada’s Tomasz Radzinski, the USA’s Brian McBride and recently-capped Dutch teenager Collins John for goals.

Cole was suspended for transgressing rule E3, which reads: “A participant shall at all times act in the best interests of the game and shall not act in any manner which is improper or brings the game into disrepute or use any one, or a combination of, violent conduct, serious foul play, threatening, abusive, indecent or insulting words or behaviour.”