The FA has defended its decision to appeal against the ban handed to Wayne Rooney following his sending off in England‘s Euro 2012 qualifier against Montenegro in October.
Liverpool boss Kenny Dalglish had accused the FA of double standards, as by their rules, Rooney would have faced an automatic three-game ban for his kick on defender Miodrag Dzudovic.
Rooney will now only face a two match suspension after his punishment was reduced by one game, with the FA’s appeal in Nyon on Thursday proving successful.
An FA statement read: “To promote speed and consistency, stakeholders in England agreed a standard formula encompassing a fixed penalty sanction should be applied across the game by The FA.
“The system has been in operation for many years and meets the demands of the domestic game.
“The FA’s system allows clubs to make a claim of wrongful dismissal – to reduce a sanction to zero – or appeal the severity of a sanction, both of these processes are dealt with prior to the player’s next fixture.
“UEFA chooses to operate a different process for European matches, based on a sliding scale, under which each sanction is determined individually by a disciplinary panel.
“In any event a minimum one-game ban will always be applied by UEFA.
“This process meets the demands of UEFA football where the period between fixtures is greater than that in the domestic game.”
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