Barton banned for six matches for assault
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Newcastle midfielder Joey Barton has been banned for six matches - with another six suspended - and fined 25,000 pounds ($54,500) for assaulting former team-mate Ousmane Dabo.
Barton, 26, had previously admitted the charge of violent conduct and was given his punishment at a Football Association hearing in London.
In July, Barton received a four-month suspended prison sentence for the assault, which occurred in May 2007, when he and Dabo were at Manchester City.
It left the French midfielder with cuts and bruises to his face and eyes as well as a suspected detached retina.
Since the attack on Dabo, who now plays for Serie A side Lazio in Italy, Barton has been jailed for a drink-fuelled attack on a teenager in his native Liverpool.
He was released from prison in July after serving 74 days of his sentence for that attack.
Kevin Keegan, who resigned as Newcastle manager on Thursday, is thought to have sent his support for the player to Friday's hearing by fax but did not appear in person.
The four-man FA panel, which included former England manager Graham Taylor, heard Barton's plea for leniency before handing down the ban which will see him out of action until October 25 at the earliest.
Barton has two weeks to appeal the verdict.
Keegan stood by Barton when he was jailed and used the player as a substitute in last weekend's defeat to Arsenal.
It is believed that the Newcastle management's attempts to sell Barton before the transfer window closed contributed to Keegan's decision to resign on Thursday.
Shearer cool on Newcastle job
Former Newcastle striker Alan Shearer appeared to rule himself out of the running to replace Keegan in the St James' Park hot seat.
The ex-England England star, now a TV pundit, described the structure at the ailing Premier League club as "strange", one day after Keegan quit as manager for the second time.
"I'd like to be a manager at some point in my career," Shearer told the BBC.
"But I want to manage - and control who comes in and out of the club."
Keegan quit the job over his lack of control on transfers, a similar complaint to the one made by Alan Curbishley who resigned as boss of fellow top flight side West Ham on Wednesday.
Shearer, a legend among Newcastle fans who scored 192 goals in 363 appearances for the club, has been regularly linked with the manager's job on the occasions it has become vacant since he retired as a player in 2006.
Keegan's former Liverpool strike partner John Toshack said on Friday that the conflict leading to the Newcastle rupture was inevitable with his old friend feeling he had been left out in the cold over transfers.
"If you've got three, four, or five players waiting for you and you don't know who they are, then you have got the right to ask yourself 'can I manage this football club?'" said Wales boss Toshack.
"You live and die by the decisions you make as a manager, and that includes buying players.
"It's a dangerous run when you go into a football club and the director of football is not appointed by yourself.
"There can only be one person who is (ultimately) responsible for buying players."
- AFP
