Spitting: Evans knows fate Saturday

Jonny Evans is set to discover on Saturday whether he will be suspended for six matches for spitting at Newcastle United’s Papiss Cisse after the Manchester United defender denied a Football Association charge on Friday night in relation to the alleged incident.


Having been charged by the FA on Thursday evening as a result of the clash with Cisse during the first-half of United’s 1-0 victory at St James’ Park twenty-four hours earlier, the Northern Ireland international spent Friday considering his position before choosing the contest the charge, rather than accept the mandatory six-match ban, in order to defend his reputation.

Papiss Cisse faces seven-match ban after accepting FA charge for spitting incident with Jonny Evans

Evans will miss United’s FA Cup quarter-final tie against Arsenal as well as subsequent Premier League games against Tottenham, Liverpool, Aston Villa, Manchester City and Chelsea if an independent commission, which is expected to report on Saturday after beginning its deliberations on Friday evening, upholds the charge against the United player.

Although the prospect of being sidelined until the trip to Everton on April 26 was a factor in the 27-year-old’s decision to fight the charge, it is understood that the defender’s driving motivation was a determination to avoid the stigma of being regarded as a player who spits at opponents – an accusation he robustly denied when issuing a statement prior to being charged on Wednesday.

“I would like to make it clear that I did not spit at Papiss Cisse,” Evans said in his statement.

“I was totally unaware of any spitting incident and had assumed that the issue at the time was with

the challenge and his attempted retaliation to the tackle from the floor.

“During the game Papiss Cisse and I spoke about the incident and it is clear by my reaction in the television footage that I was totally surprised by any suggestion of spitting.

“It is not in my character or in my nature to spit at anybody nor is it something I have ever done or would ever do. It is certainly not something that I did.”

Cisse’s decision to accept an FA charge for the same incident, and also issue an apology for his involvement, is set to lead to the Newcastle forward receiving a seven-match suspension, with the additional game being applied as a result of a sending off earlier this season, reports The  Telegraph