The Newcastle player who broke Fagan of Hull's leg in a wild kick will not have any extra punishment, just the standard 3-match ban:

"The FA doesn't have the power to extend automatic suspensions.

"The only circumstances in which we could take any further action would be to issue an additional charge against a player.

"This occurs only in exceptional cases, such as Ben Thatcher's challenge on Pedro Mendes in 2006."

I thought it was such a violent and deliberate kick that it did warrant being considered an 'exceptional case'. And that's nothing to do with the leg being broken, just the thuggish, Roy Keane-style nature of it.

But, then look where the Barcodes signed him from.

He already deserved the red for the first challenge he put in. The second one belonged in a back alley.

This is, as you say, an exceptional case, for sure. The FA are missing the spirit of the law to follow the rule of it, as usual

He ought to be banned for as long as the other guy is out of the game. This wasn't a mistimed challenge. He just went up and kicked him as hard as he could. It was ridiculous.

i wonder if we will have every sports writer, every moronic fan and everyone on tv talking about this. we have had that about terry, and it wasnt anywhere near as controversial as this. will patrick collins have a full page spread on how football is falling apart? will the times online have a blog from their esteemed writers on how the fa dont understand football? i doubt it somehow.