FA Give Kinnear The Benefit Of The Doubt!

Last updated : 29 September 2008 By Footy Mad - Editor
The Football Association have confirmed that Joe Kinnear's touchline ban INCLUDED the Blackburn fixture.

It emerged in the wake of Kinnear's surprise appointment on Friday that he still had/has a suspension to serve from his time at Nottingham Forest.

The FA have decided the  2-1 home defeat by Blackburn counted as the first and the 61-year-old will complete his punishment with next Sunday's Barclays Premier League trip to Everton.

An FA spokesman said: "It is a two-match suspension which is carried over from when he left his position at Nottingham Forest to when he started any further employment, in this case at Newcastle United.

"Yesterday counted as the first one and Newcastle's next game at Everton will be the second of the two."

Kinnear incurred the ban for comments made to the referee after Forest's clash with Gillingham in November 2004, when he described the official as 'Coco the clown'.