Manchester City will be without Sergio Aguero for three matches after an FA panel decided that the striker's tangle with West Ham's Winston Reid last weekend was worthy of a suspension.
It was confirmed earlier in the week that the Argentine has been charged for the
alleged elbow, although City confirmed that they were to appeal against the charge on Thursday night.
An Independent Regulatory Commission rejected the appeal, meaning Aguero will have to sit out of the next three matches for Pep Guardiola's side - the first of which being the Manchester derby next Saturday.
The full statement from the FA reads:
Sergio Aguero will serve a three-match suspension with immediate effect after an FA charge of violent conduct against him was found proven.
The Manchester City forward was involved in a 76th-minute incident with West Ham United’s Winston Reid on Sunday [28 August 2016], which was not seen by the match officials but caught on video.
The club denied the charge and submitted further that, if it was to be found proven, the standard punishment would be clearly excessive.
On finding the charge proven at a hearing today (Friday 2 September 2016), an Independent Regulatory Commission went on to reject the club’s further claim to decrease the three-match ban.
As you can probably imagine, City supporters were unimpressed by the news - some even going as far as to suggest that the decision proved that the FA were 'corrupt'.
https://twitter.com/HollywoodMCFC/status/771757783058309120
https://twitter.com/Blue29fella/status/771760920641110016
https://twitter.com/Kuntastic_/status/771757980467490817
https://twitter.com/Greeny_75/status/771763531435966464
https://twitter.com/warrenmcfc/status/771437615228784640
Others were more concerned with Andre Marriner, the referee in charge of the game in which the incident took place. Marriner claimed to have not seen the incident, yet - as pointed out by many City supporters - he appeared to have a perfectly unimpeded view of it.
https://twitter.com/MancBastard/status/771756570489257988
https://twitter.com/ChrsBcknhm/status/771757355679752192
https://twitter.com/ChrsBcknhm/status/771755127673851905
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