FA ready to back Red Rooney

Posted Wednesday, October 12, 2011 by ESPN

The Football Association has pledged to assist Wayne Rooney to be available for England as early as possible at Euro 2012.

Rooney will definitely miss the start of the tournament after being sent off in Friday's 2-2 draw with Montenegro to earn a suspension.

However, UEFA will not decide until Thursday whether to increase his automatic one-match ban.

Reports suggest Rooney has written a letter to the European governing body requesting that his sentence is not extended, while Bevington says he has been working hard behind the scenes to seek leniency.

And Football Association director of communications Adrian Bevington has indicated that the FA would be prepared to launch an appeal if the striker is handed anything more than a one-game ban.

"We are still waiting to be advised by the UEFA disciplinary group as to what the penalty will be," Bevington told Sky Sports News.

"We have been working very hard behind the scenes to ensure that we are prepared to support Wayne in any way we can.

"If it does lead to an appeal process, or any supplementary evidence we can submit to support him, we are not disputing that he was sent off for a red-card offence, but it is very important to us as an organisation that we try and look after all our players.

"And I would like to say, on the record, that Wayne conducted himself incredibly well after the game. He was very apologetic and I felt he handled it very maturely.

"We will do all that we can to try and ensure that Wayne is available to us as soon as possible in the finals."

UEFA will study footage of the incident and take note of any submissions they receive from the FA, England coach Fabio Capello or Rooney.

"There are lots of possible sanctions going from a warning to a big fine and three-game ban," said a UEFA spokesman.

"The disciplinary body, based on the referee's report, makes a decision.

"This happens pretty often but depends on the situation and also on the past of the player, if it is a first red card or not."