Barton’s Ban: Too Little Too Late from the FA

If you haven’t heard yet, Joey Barton has been handed a six game ban by the FA for mangling Ousmane Dabo’s face back when they played for City, with a further six games suspended punishment (meaning if he does anything else violent in the next two seasons, it’s an automatic six game ban).

Is it just me, or is this too little too late? First of all, six games? You can get half that just for a nasty tackle. And the “incident” with Dabo (the incident where he left his teammate lying unconscious in his own blood) happened 15 months ago while the two were at Manchester City.

Since it happened, Barton was suspended by City for six months and been convicted in court of actual bodily harm. He’s also been in and served a stretch at Strangeways Prison for a completely different incident in the meantime, changed clubs and reintroduced himself to the Prem by causing even more trouble last week.

Why so slow? Lack of evidence? As if the evidence wasn’t literally all over Ousmane Dabo’s face?

I don’t full understand the process at the FA, and feel free to point out my lack of legal knowledge in the comments. Maybe the FA had to wait until the actual real life legal proceedings were confirmed before they could charge him with anything.

But if that’s the case, then why bother? This is something that’s been dealt with by both the club and the law, so the FA’s not helping anyone – least of all their own reputation – by weighing in with a token charge and a token punishment just to let everyone know they wield some power.

Say what you like about the semi-draconian harshness of FIFA banning Serbian spitter Slobodan Rajkovic for 12 months, but at least they did it quickly.

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Category: English Premier League