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Bellamy is forgiven

Manchester United, Manchester City and Blackburn players could be punished

Rustam Sharafutdinov Manchester City striker Craig Bellamy will not be suspended for attacking a fan at the end of the match against Manchester United. Bellamy's teammate, who was hit with a coin at the end of the game, said that Manchester United themselves created an unbearable situation at this meeting at Old Trafford. And a Blackburn player could face punishment for racial abuse.

Manchester City striker Craig Bellamy and Manchester United defender Gary Neville will not be punished by the Football Association (FA) for their behavior after their Premier League match. The FA has issued a warning to players that such behavior will not be tolerated and has also noted that if such incidents occur again in the future, stricter sanctions will be imposed on them.

The past sixth round of the English Premier League will remain in the memory of its eyewitnesses for a long time. But not only because of the past results, which included a crazy derby in Manchester between United and City, in which the national champions achieved victory in the seventh minute of added time. That confrontation was also remembered for football-related events with a scandalous overtone.

Let us remind you that after the Manchester United forward Michael Owen scored the winning goal against the Citizens, Craig Bellamy, who scored a double for the visitors (the game took place at Old Trafford), hit a fan who ran onto the field.

That poor guy turned out to be 21-year-old Jake Joseph Clarke, who immediately found himself in the hands of the stewards and received a slap on the wrist from the Welsh player.

Local police have already charged him with running onto the field without any permission and he will appear in court this week. “I was a bit of an idiot, but that doesn’t excuse what Bellamy did,” he told The Sun. - He's just a killer. He ran up to me and shouted, “Get off the field.” The next thing I know, he punched me." An eyewitness said Clarke ran onto the pitch to hug his United heroes. Bellamy himself could receive a three-match disqualification for attacking a fan, whom he hit, apparently out of anger. This incident will be considered by the FA (English Football Association) disciplinary commission, using video footage taken from several cameras located at the game. At the same time, Manchester City assistant coach Mark Bowen said that the club would not punish its player, the Guardian reports. Bellamy himself explained his behavior this way: he wanted to quickly resume the game after the goal, so he ran up to the fan to tell him to leave the lawn.<1>

The FA will consider the unsportsmanlike actions of one of the Manchester United players, as well as the behavior of Mancunian fans. Firstly, we are talking about a coin hitting Spanish City midfielder Javier Garrido . The launched coin hit the player as he was leaving the field and was near the tunnel leading to the locker room. “I’ve been playing in England for two seasons now, and I imagine that this derby is full of more fanaticism than other games. But the atmosphere of this match was truly incredible and included insults that we heard upon arrival at the game, Garrido was quoted as saying by Dailymail . “I was hit in the head with a coin when I was calmly walking into the tunnel. I think that the target was Carlos Tevez (former Manchester United player - Gazeta.Ru note ), but I followed him. Representatives of the Ministry of Justice saw all this, but none of them took any action.

I believe that by doing so, United created such hostile conditions against us.

The same shouts against Tevez are normal, but I don’t understand why they need to throw foreign objects at us. When we were on the bench we received constant abuse throughout the match, but I would never have thought that a situation like this could happen at Old Trafford. I’m very sad that this happened.”<2>

“If that man really was aiming at me, then it would be fair if Manchester United would not allow him into the stadium anymore,” Tevez said in turn. “I’ve never seen anything like it in my two years at Old Trafford.” The atmosphere was very negative, but this did not affect the game. The result is unfair. The amount of added time turned out to be quite exaggerated. However, we are looking forward to the return leg and feel we have an obligation to beat United. The Citizens are determined to find out why referee Atkinson added more than six minutes to the second half, allowing Owen to score the winning goal.

Manchester United defender Gary Neville, who spent the entire game on the bench, may also be punished. The FA has questions about why the footballer, while celebrating Owen's goal, rushed to the corner of the arena where visiting fans were sitting and shouted abuse at them.

It is unlikely that the Mancunians will be able to imagine that Neville could run to warm up after the goal, since by that time Sir Alex Ferguson had made all three substitutions.

It should be noted that three years ago the footballer was fined £5 thousand for a verbal confrontation with Liverpool fans, and then received an official warning about the inadmissibility of such a thing in the future.

Finally, about one more incident that may pale in comparison to the history at Old Trafford, but is directly related to racism. As a rule, black players become victims of racist manifestations, listening to insults from the stands. However, in the match “Everton” - “Blackburn”, the visiting Senegalese striker El-Haj Diouf during a game episode demanded from one of the boys serving the balls that he do his job quickly, using the expression “snow white”. An hour after the game, the police questioned the player. Investigators also spoke with the boy and the officials from that game on Monday, and a decision will be made in the next few days. The FA is also monitoring this situation, as Diouf may face not only football but also criminal penalties.

More English football news can be found here .

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Bellamy forgiven - Gazeta.Ru