Patrick Barclay in Telegraph looks at the discrepancy in FA disciplinary measures,
‘I shall review Michael Owen's autobiography more fittingly when I have finished it, but one gripping passage concerns a hideous tackle Owen made on Ronny Johnsen at Old Trafford a few years ago. "That was a head-down, lost-the-plot kind of day," Owen writes. "Even an hour before the game I was sharpening my studs for battle. It was total red mist."
‘After a 'dig' at Peter Schmeichel, he went in late and two-footed on Johnsen and was sent off. "I can remember feeling devastated as I took a shower, but still bubbling, still fierce. After about half-an-hour I felt my shoulders suddenly drop and all the air leave my body, as if I was coming down off an aggressive high."
‘Later he saw Johnsen being taken to an ambulance and felt "truly awful, too embarrassed even to say sorry". True, this is somewhat more dignified than Roy Keane's infamous account of his assault on Alfie Haaland during a Manchester derby and, in any case, people should generally be punished for deeds rather than words.
‘But it does raise two questions. Why are the victims always Norwegians? And this is for the FA, who banned the Manchester United captain for five matches and fined him a £150,000: is there one law for Keane and another for clean-cut Englishmen?’