UEFA has cut Wayne Rooney’s suspension to two games, making him eligible to play in England’s final Euro 2012 group match against Ukraine.
Rooney made his case at UEFA’s headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland in front of Three Lions boss Fabio Capello and his four lawyers.
Whatever he said must have worked.
After the ruling, England director Adrian Bevington explained the conditions of the new suspension and added that he was content with UEFA’s ruling.
“The suspension is now suspended for four years so Wayne will be available for the final group game of the European Championships against Ukraine – so in effect it’s a two-match suspension with one carried over a four-year period for the national teams,” Bevington told Sky Sports News.
“We’re very pleased with that today. Wayne’s presence here was clearly important so I’d like to make a special thanks to Manchester United; to David Gill and to Sir Alex Ferguson for releasing Wayne to be present.
“I’d also like to pay special tribute to Adam Lewis QC who led our case with Antonio Rigozzi, Jon Ellis and James Bonnington. It’s been very important that this has been worked through very professionally.
“Wayne has also agreed to support one day of a Uefa programme during the forthcoming period and we would expect him to do so while he’s on national team duty – so there will be no impact on his Manchester United time there as well.
“So we’re very grateful for the time we’ve been given by Uefa today. The commission considered everything. They listened to evidence from Wayne and from Fabio Capello as well and we’re pleased with the outcome.
“We’ve had a very fair hearing. Clearly it was very important that both Wayne and Fabio attended and obviously the outcome of Wayne being available for the third group game is a positive result for us.”
Well, I guess it’s time to discuss United’s embarrassing exit from the UEFA Champions League.
The Red Devils became the first club in history to make it to the Champions League final only to miss out on the knockout stages the next year.
Patrice Evra expressed his “embarrassing” reality to reporters following United’s loss at FC Basel.
“I feel I will wake up tomorrow and we will have qualified. It feels like a dream,” said Evra.
“But it is not a dream it is the reality. We should have woken up earlier in this competition. We deserve to be out.
“Even if it is a friendly, when I pull on United shirt I do my best to win that trophy. But it is embarrassing to be in the Europa League.
“I play for Manchester United to play in the Champions League but some players dream of playing for United in any competition and you have to respect that.”
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