KEANE TO BE INVESTIGATED

Roy Keane could yet be prosecuted for his notorious foul on Alf Inge Haaland
after an MP demanded that Greater Manchester Police investigate the
Manchester United player's 'serious assault'.

Colchester MP Bob Russell, the Liberal Democrats' spokesman on sport, has
reignited the controversy surrounding the incident by writing to Keane's local
police force to report it as a crime. Having received a formal complaint about
the vengeful lunge during the April 2001 Manchester derby, GMP will be
obliged to look at what happened to see if any charges should be laid.

In his letter, Russell says that Keane's 'violent tackle was premeditated and
was, therefore, a deliberate assault. Acts of assault, whether in the workplace
or at entrances to nightclubs, should not be viewed differently simply because
one occurred during a football match while another was at a drinking venue.'

The MP points to the television footage of the incident and Keane's admission
in his autobiography that he set out to hurt the Manchester City midfielder in
revenge for an earlier flare-up between them when Haaland was with Leeds
United as evidence of a crime having been committed.

'When is football going to realise that it cannot be above the law of the land
that relates to everyone else?' Russell said. 'I am inviting the chief constable
to regard the written admission of assault by Roy Keane as seriously as any
other assault at any other location and to view my letter as a formal report of a
crime.' GMP were unavailable for comment last night.

Do anything to make a name for yourself would you Mr Russell?