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Newcastle's Alan Pardew hit with FA charge over headbutt lunacy
NEWCASTLE manager Alan Pardew escaped criminal charges yesterday for head butting Hull City’s David Meyler, but was charged by the FA with improper conduct.
Pardew has until 6pm on Thursday to respond to the charge, but he is certain to plead guilty and may request a personal hearing in front of an FA-appointed three-man disciplinary panel before his side’s next match on Saturday week against Fulham.
The FA admitted this was “uncharted territory” for them and Pardew can expect a minimum of a five-game stadium ban, although the punishment could be as heavy as a 10-game ban, meaning he would not be able to attend games for the rest of the season.
Pardew immediately apologised to Meyler, Hull manager Steve Bruce and both sets of fans for his extraordinary assault on the Republic of Ireland midfielder.
Pardew, who was fined £100,000 by the club, has probably survived not losing his job because his team are in a healthy eighth place in the Premier League and are still in with an outside chance of qualifying for Europe for the second time in three years.