Kinnear Vows To Fight 2nd FA Charge
By Tyne-Talk
December 9 2008
Newcastle manager Joe Kinnear is reeling after the FA is once again investigating his behaviour on the touchline. It's the second time in four weeks that Kinnear has been the subject of an FA investigation for being abusive to a referee.
His first charge of improper conduct comes from 9th November 2008 when he labelled referee Martin Atkinson a "Mickey Mouse" referee after he was unhappy by a decision made during the match.
His second charge is of using abusive and insulting words towards referee Mike Riley, which is alleged to have occurred on Saturday 6th December 2008 in Newcastle's 2-2 draw against Stoke at St James' Park.
Kinnear, 61, was sent to the stands at the end of the Stoke game after by Mike Riley after the linesman made a complaint about him.
However, Kinnear is determined to fight the charge insisting that he is yet to be told why he was sent off.
"I'm going to defend myself against any charge because on this occasion I have done nothing wrong and I'm determined to clear my name. I still haven't been told exactly why I was sent from the dug-out, but I believe it was for supposedly saying something to the linesman.
I don't know because I've not been told by the referee. I will fight this because I'm frustrated and disappointed it has happened. The thing that I find strange is I've no idea how the linesman has heard what I've supposedly said from where he was standing and with all the noise that was going on.
Chris (Hughton) was having his say and I did say something, I know what I said, but I'll wait until I have to give my defence before I talk about that any more.
There was plenty of noise around, the fans behind the linesman were absolutely furious and they were saying plenty to him as well, the whole place went crazy. I'm not blaming the linesman or the referee. It's not their fault Stoke scored, we defended the free-kick badly and that was why they scored.
It's our own fault we conceded a goal in injury time because we knew they were dangerous from set-pieces and we switched off at the crucial moment.
The free-kick should never have been given, it wasn't a foul, there was barely any contact at all and I couldn't believe it was judged to be foul play. Mistakes happen though."
He added;
"We've dropped four points in our last two home games and if you think back to the Manchester City game, we've dropped six really. Against City they were given a penalty which never was and we had a player sent off for it which was another major blow for us to deal with.
Against Fulham there was a foul in the build-up to their second goal which the referee ignored and those things are really difficult to take. If we had a couple more points the league table would look a lot better for us.
We have been getting a raw deal in recent weeks and we can only hope that turns for us in the second half of the season. When you think about all the injuries we've picked up as well, lady luck hasn't really been kind to us has she? But we are soldiering on and things will turn in our favour as long as we keep plugging away."
Respecting referees is one thing. A complete moratorium on criticism is something else (though I suspected that was largely the actual agenda from the beginning) and completely untenable. The officials have made a mistake, in this instance, a horrid one. They deserve criticism.
KK will never manage for NUFC again.
Kinnear is a sort of mug, but he's right in his criticism of the ref.