By Chris Wright
Just a quickie to let y’all good people know that Vincent Kompany will indeed have to serve a four-match ban after the FA threw out Manchester City’s appeal this afternoon because Wayne Rooney wafted an imaginary gavel at them* during the hearing.
(*this may or may not be true)
The official word from the FA’s Independent Regulatory Commission reads thusly:
“[We have] today dismissed a claim of wrongful dismissal from Manchester City’s Vincent Kompany following his red card for serious foul play in the FA Cup third-round tie between Manchester City and Manchester United on 8th January 2012.
“Kompany will serve a four-match suspension with immediate effect. The suspension consists of a statutory three-match suspension for serious foul play plus one additional game given this is Kompany’s second dismissal of the season.”
The ban will see Kompany miss Premier League games against Wigan and Tottenham, sandwiched in between both legs of City’s Carling Cup semi-final against Liverpool on 11th and 25th of January respectively – which means Roberto Mancini will be down to the bare bones with only the £33 million central-defensive pairing of Joleon Lescott and Stefan Savic at his disposal.
Poor lamb.