Rooney decides to face up to ban

SOCCER News round-up: Wayne Rooney will serve a three-match suspension after admitting a charge of violent conduct, the English Football Association confirmed last night.

The Manchester United striker will sit out the Premiership matches against Middlesbrough tomorrow and Tottenham on Tuesday as well as the FA Cup clash with non-league Exeter.

The ban was imposed after United decided not to appeal, even though club manager Alex Ferguson described the disciplinary system as "flawed and immoral".

Rooney was brought to book after pushing his hand in the face of Bolton's Tal Ben Haim on St Stephen's Day. Ben Haim has also been charged with improper conduct - and Bolton have confirmed they will appeal.

Ferguson said he was baffled that a charge of violent conduct has been levelled at Rooney and hit out at English FA officials.

"It was no more than a push in the face, there was no swing of the arm or anything like that, " he said. "The violent conduct charge bemuses me because every man and his dog would agree it was not violent conduct.

"If it is violent conduct why are they charging Ben Haim? I can't understand it. If it is violent conduct, Ben Haim should not be charged. He is being charged so they therefore believe he is guilty of diving and bringing the game into disrepute.

"The system is completely flawed. The problem for us now is we can't really appeal because we are not allowed to be represented. It is a closed section.

"So therefore they are telling you, 'don't bother appealing, you are not going to win anyway'. As we are approaching 2005, that seems to be unfair and immoral."

While Ferguson would like the disciplinary system updated, club captain Roy Keane is anxious for things to change on the pitch.

"A lot of players seem to be looking to be getting players booked or sent off. That is something that has crept in over the last year or two," said the Cork man.

"There are a lot of cases where players are reacting and trying to get fellow professionals into trouble. It is disgraceful. It needs to stop. The PFA and the FA need to look at the situation.

"Lots of stuff goes on in a game. If you went down every time a player touched you, every player would be down. But you see it every weekend - when players do get touched, they are going down.

"They are trying to con the referee, con their fellow players and con the crowd. It is driving me crazy seeing them trying to get players in trouble."

United defender John O'Shea could be out for up to two weeks after suffering a thigh injury in the defeat of Aston Villa.

Meanwhile, Dwight Yorke has urged all top-flight professional soccer players to donate a week's wages to the Asian tsunami disaster relief fund.

The Birmingham City striker said the gesture could do an enormous amount for the millions of people left homeless by Sunday's giant waves.

His suggestion followed a donation of £1 million by the 20 English Premier League football clubs to the Disasters Emergency Committee, which is co-ordinating Britain's relief effort.

"When you think what a week's wages could do to help these communities it is the very least we can do," said the former Manchester United star.

It is understood that Yorke will be making his own donation to the relief effort through the DEC.

Manchester United announced it would donate 50p from the sale of every match-day programme at its next two home matches against Tottenham and Exeter to Unicef's disaster relief fund.

The club usually sells roughly 30,000 programmes at every home game.

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Colombia president Alvaro Uribe has said Luis Fernando Montoya, the former Once Caldas coach who was left quadriplegic after being shot twice in a robbery, is a giant of strength after visiting him in hospital.

"It was very difficult to go in and see him," Uribe said as he left the intensive care unit of the Medellin hospital where Montoya - who turned the little-known provincial club into Colombian and South American champions - is in a critical, but stable, condition.

"One thing is speaking to the clinic and family by telephone and another thing is going in to see him. He's a giant of strength and I felt like a coward in comparison," Uribe said.

Montoya was shot near his home in the small town of Caldas near the city of Medellin last week after he tried to defend his wife Adriana from robbers.

Four people, including two women suspected of being accomplices, have been arrested.

Montoya took over at Once Caldas, who are based in the Andean city of Manizales, in late 2002 and led them on an unprecedented run of success.