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Newcastle midfielder Yohan Cabaye to contest charge of violent conduct
Magpies boss Alan Pardew has launched a staunch defence of his player, insisting that the TV coverage didn’t help his case and that Brighton have supported the decision to appeal
31 Jan 2012 17:30:00
By Joe Wright
Getty Images
Newcastle midfielder Yohan Cabaye is to contest the charge of violent conduct levelled at him after last weekend’s FA Cup clash with Brighton.
The 26-year-old was charged on Monday following an incident with Seagulls defender Adam El-Abd, in which he appeared to kick out at the player as the two fell to the floor. The FA decided to hit the Frenchman with the sanction although referee Lee Probert took no action at the time.
Magpies manager Alan Pardew was infuriated by the extent to which tevelsion coverage of the game focused on the incident, and has revealed that the club plan to back the player fully in his appeal.
He told reporters: "I am absolutely livid about it, if I am honest, because firstly, when the incident happened, I didn't see anything wrong with it.
"After the game, someone said to me the TV coverage, especially the presenter, Ray Stubbs, was so ferocious about it, and I couldn't understand that.
"He had two professionals on that show telling him that the guy was trying to keep the player from tumbling on him.
"I have reviewed that about seven or eight times and seriously, he is trying to stop the boy falling on him.
"He does make a gesture to push him away and in doing so, catches him just on the lip.
"If you find that that was a malicious attempt to do that then, my goodness, you have never played this game.
"I cannot believe that the referee, after the game, has gone back. Now whether this is pressure that he's under, I don't know.”
Pardew also admitted that Brighton manager Gus Poyet had contacted him directly, offering his own support to the players’ bid to have the ban overturned.
"Yesterday, I had a call from the Brighton coaching team to suggest to me that their player wants to support our player, and I have never had that [before],” the 50-year-old added.
"We never instigated it, we never asked or put a phone call in to Brighton - in fact, I didn't see Gus [Poyet] after the game, and I must apologise to him for that, because I had to shoot off.
"We have sent our letter in, a strong letter, and we have also, after the contact from Brighton, asked the Brighton player if he would forward a letter to us, which he has kindly done, and that will go in as well."
This appears to signal a change of heart from El-Abd, who confessed immediately after the match that he felt Cabaye deserved a red card for the incident.
"I've seen it again and I think it was frustration on his part and he did have a little kick out at me," said El-Abd at the time.
"I think it was a sending-off. I think he knew what he was doing as well but that's for the referee to decide.
"It's part of the game, it's not nice but sometimes people get frustrated."
Cabaye was given until 6pm on Tuesday to contest the ban, and would have been suspended for Wednesday’s clash with Blackburn Rovers had he elected to take no further action.
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The 26-year-old was charged on Monday following an incident with Seagulls defender Adam El-Abd, in which he appeared to kick out at the player as the two fell to the floor. The FA decided to hit the Frenchman with the sanction although referee Lee Probert took no action at the time.
Magpies manager Alan Pardew was infuriated by the extent to which tevelsion coverage of the game focused on the incident, and has revealed that the club plan to back the player fully in his appeal.
He told reporters: "I am absolutely livid about it, if I am honest, because firstly, when the incident happened, I didn't see anything wrong with it.
"After the game, someone said to me the TV coverage, especially the presenter, Ray Stubbs, was so ferocious about it, and I couldn't understand that.
"He had two professionals on that show telling him that the guy was trying to keep the player from tumbling on him.
"I have reviewed that about seven or eight times and seriously, he is trying to stop the boy falling on him.
"He does make a gesture to push him away and in doing so, catches him just on the lip.
"If you find that that was a malicious attempt to do that then, my goodness, you have never played this game.
"I cannot believe that the referee, after the game, has gone back. Now whether this is pressure that he's under, I don't know.”
Pardew also admitted that Brighton manager Gus Poyet had contacted him directly, offering his own support to the players’ bid to have the ban overturned.
"Yesterday, I had a call from the Brighton coaching team to suggest to me that their player wants to support our player, and I have never had that [before],” the 50-year-old added.
"We never instigated it, we never asked or put a phone call in to Brighton - in fact, I didn't see Gus [Poyet] after the game, and I must apologise to him for that, because I had to shoot off.
"We have sent our letter in, a strong letter, and we have also, after the contact from Brighton, asked the Brighton player if he would forward a letter to us, which he has kindly done, and that will go in as well."
This appears to signal a change of heart from El-Abd, who confessed immediately after the match that he felt Cabaye deserved a red card for the incident.
"I've seen it again and I think it was frustration on his part and he did have a little kick out at me," said El-Abd at the time.
"I think it was a sending-off. I think he knew what he was doing as well but that's for the referee to decide.
"It's part of the game, it's not nice but sometimes people get frustrated."
Cabaye was given until 6pm on Tuesday to contest the ban, and would have been suspended for Wednesday’s clash with Blackburn Rovers had he elected to take no further action.
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Live!
England 1-0 Belgium, Netherlands 4-0 Northern Ireland - follow all the international action LIVE! ahead of Euro 2012
With countries across the continent gearing up for their final warm-up games ahead of Euro 2012, join us for all the action from Saturday's friendlies. Get in touch with us via Twitter with your reaction.
Hosted by Joe Doyle
Hosted by Joe Doyle
19:59 BST
Unfortunately for Northern Ireland, they are trailing the Netherlands 4-0 at half-time. Looks like that one's all sewn up then.
19:54 BST
We're still getting plenty of Hazard chat on Twitter. A few are now saying that he's not worth the hype, others saying he was brilliant(!?) and others (which I agree with), saying he created much of his own hype. What do you think? Get involved!
19:46 BST
Joe Hart has also been giving his thoughts after the Belgium game: "It was a really tough game, a good run out. I thought we played well, [but] we were a little bit bitty at times.
"But, we came through. Obviously there were a lot of changes so it's good to get the result.
"Belgium are a very, very strong side who are going to be really good in the future. Vincent [Kompany] told me about them and said that they were coming good and I totally agree with him."
"But, we came through. Obviously there were a lot of changes so it's good to get the result.
"Belgium are a very, very strong side who are going to be really good in the future. Vincent [Kompany] told me about them and said that they were coming good and I totally agree with him."
19:38 BST
Here's Roy Hodgson's reaction to the result and some injury chat: "I'm very pleased, it's been a hard week and we've used a lot of players. There was a lot of disruption in the second-half with substitutions – some forced upon us, some we wanted to do. But it's still a very good end to the week playing against a good Belgian team here. Arguably even stronger than the Norwegian team we played last week and I've got to be more than happy that we've come out with another victory."
"[Gary] Cahill I suppose is slightly more of a concern for me because it is a jaw injury. We're desperately hoping the CT scan doesn't show any fracture and it's just going to be a bruising situation, which will be bad enough, but won't stop him taking part in the tournament. As far as John's [Terry] concerned he felt his hamstring a little bit. Again it wasn't a major thing when he came off but we still need to scan it just to be 100 per cent sure."
Suffice to say, if Cahill has broken his jaw, he won't play any part in the tournament.
"[Gary] Cahill I suppose is slightly more of a concern for me because it is a jaw injury. We're desperately hoping the CT scan doesn't show any fracture and it's just going to be a bruising situation, which will be bad enough, but won't stop him taking part in the tournament. As far as John's [Terry] concerned he felt his hamstring a little bit. Again it wasn't a major thing when he came off but we still need to scan it just to be 100 per cent sure."
Suffice to say, if Cahill has broken his jaw, he won't play any part in the tournament.
19:35 BST
And another point from today: Eden Hazard wasn't great. Don't think you can judge him on one performance though. What do you think? Is it just a case of too much hype around the Chelsea-bound Belgian?
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