Wayne Rooney hopes to get his swearing ban cut to one game today and leave the cameraman in the firing line.

Manchester United and their star striker have launched a last-ditch bid to enable Rooney to play in the FA Cup semi-final showdown with Manchester City.

Rooney accepted the FA charge of using offensive, insulting and/or abusive language following his four-letter tirade into a TV camera lens after completing his hat-trick in United’s 4-2 win at West Ham.

However Rooney and United have put together a detailed package, explaining the full background to the incident, and have presented it to the FA whose five-man panel will sit to consider their case.

The close proximity of the Sky camera to Rooney after he scored is likely to see the TV company warned after their cameramen broke an unwritten rule by going on the pitch to get a close-up of the striker.

Rooney let fly when the camera homed in on him after his hat-trick goal at West Ham – with pictures showing that some of the close-range ‘money shots’ were made inside the white line.

Rooney reacted to the unwanted attention with his foul-mouthed outburst – and led to his unprecedented rap. Friends say the ‘f*** off, what do you want?’ yell was aimed at the cameras as they closed in on him.

The commission will meet at Wembley today to decide Rooney’s fate, with the FA considering delaying making public their verdict until after tonight’s Champions League tie between United and Chelsea.

SOURCE: Daily Mirror

Why has this incident caused such an uproar? Would this have happened if a complete nobody of a player swore in the direction of a camera? Players swear all the time, usually at the officials, but no one bats an eyelid and surely that is a bigger ‘crime’ than mouthing off after scoring a hat-trick. The argument that there may have been kids watching is really neither here nor there. Surely a footballer doesn’t have to take into account who is watching them on TV, does he?

Clearly it’s not great that Wayne Rooney went into a swear ridden tirade but it really is no big deal as far as I can make out and surely not the first time something like this has happened. The FA will see sense, they may fine the England man but a ban seems highly unlikely.

By the way, when the FA dishes out all these fines, where does the money go? We may well start a campaign to order all funds accrued by fines to be given to charity, who’s with us?

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The Daily Telegraph reports that Fergie has taken offence at the words of Paul Merson and Phil Thompson on Sky, who claimed that Wayne Rooney should have been sent off in United’s past two league matches!

Ferguson has reportedly told Sky that he will not co-operate with the channel at tonight’s Champions League clash against Celtic.

The 66-year-old is upset with former Liverpool manager Phil Thompson and Arsenal’s Paul Merson, two Sky pundits, while it is not known how long Ferguson’s ban will last.

Thompson claimed striker Rooney should have seen red for kissing the Manchester United badge when he returned to Goodison Park while Merson said Rooney might have been sent off against Hull City.

So much for freedom of speech! The Manchester United manager likes interviewers to ask the right sort of questions, such as ‘How on earth are your team so amazing?’ and ‘What a brilliant performance, are you proud of your players?’. Any hint of criticism is uncalled for in the eyes of the veteran manager, who is clearly ending his days with plenty of venom for the TV companies.

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Sky Sports reports Paul Merson just about managing to string a sentence together and making his bold-as-predictions for the new campaign. Here are just a few choice comments from the man who isn’t afraid to stick his neck on the line.

My tip is Chelsea. I think Scolari will go for it and try and win games rather than just not lose them.

I think Manchester United will be runners-up, followed by Arsenal and then Liverpool.

I don’t like putting pressure on Harry but I think Portsmouth are very much the dark horses.

I think Bolton will struggle. West Brom will struggle to score goals in the Premier League.

Fernando Torres for Golden Boot…but you don’t know how many games he’ll play. A real dark horse in this category for me is Jermain Defoe.

Portsmouth the dark horses? If he’d called Wigan or Sunderland as a team to be up there fighting for a UEFA Cup place, not an outfit that finished eighth last season and have signed the likes of Peter Crouch and Younes Kaboul in the close season! However, let’s save our best quote for last:

The only chance of Stoke staying up is if Rory Delap stays fit because he’s got a long throw. He gets the ball in the box or wins a corner, and so sooner or later teams will buckle because of that.

Yes, Vidic and Ferdinand will be sh*tting it on Boxing Day, when they travel to the Britannia Stadium and come under fire from Delap’s long throw-ins. Why haven’t Premier League strugglers looked to sign someone with an exceedingly long throw before, surely the best way to succeed in all competitions!

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Sunday’s title showdown is in danger of being a complete anti-climax, especially if Manchester United tear into Wigan from the off as they did against West Ham last Saturday. The ITV website reports that Michael Ballack expects the Latics to put up a decent fight, although it was only a fortnight ago that Steve Bruce was reporting a smooth operator that goes by the name of Sir Alex Ferguson had been calling him up.

“The pressure is on and I hope Wigan are proud enough to give everything in the last game and we have to beat Bolton.

“United have everything in their hands, but we are relaxed now. We did our job. We will give everything to beat Bolton at home and we will see what they do.”

Goodness me, the German captain is really getting into this fighting talk malarkey. One minute he was out of favour with Mourinho, now he’s leading the calls for United’s opposition to give it their best shot! Let’s also hope that the Wanderers play with pride at the Bridge after essentially guaranteeing their Premier League safety against Sunderland.

The match being televised at St Andrews could also be pretty dull, although the Sky cameras are likely to have some gratuitous shots of football fans in tears, with Birmingham extremely likely to be relegated after their 2-0 defeat at Fulham. Watch out for small children sobbing their hearts out – and a few grown men too!

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“Times are changing,” said Wright. “I don’t know how long young people are going to want to sit down and watch that same old ‘jacket, shirt and tie’ format.”

“Fans want people who are dressed like them. They’ve got no one to relate to on TV and that’s why I’ve said to them I don’t want to do the England games any more.

“I feel like I’m just there as a comedy jester to break the ice with Alan Shearer and Alan Hansen who just do run-of-the-mill things. I can’t do that anymore. People want something different.”

Wright is now going to present Gladiators on Sky One, the very bastion of credibility. John Fashanu had the awooga shout, what will Ian Wright’s trademark be? Perhaps most viewers would prefer it if he said very little at all.

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It’s clear that the club are far from happy at having to play this match just 72 hours after their 1-1 draw with Wigan on Monday night, stating that it puts them at a clear disadvantage against title rivals Manchester United.

The club have used the £300,000 TV “facility fee” to supply free tickets and transportation to their 2,900 fans inside Goodison. Chelsea fan Dave Johnstone, editor of cfcuk fanzine, said: “Sky don’t care about the dyed-in-the-wool fans.”

That much is certainly true, why would they care too much considering they have millions of paying customers sitting in armchairs up and down the country watching the game instead? However, is it a case that Chelsea will be biting the hand that feeds them, considering the amount of money the corporation invest into the game?

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The fabulous Mansfield Chad report that power-hungry John Batchelor is intent on mixing things up at Field Mill in a big way. The team currently occupy 23rd place in League Two and seem destined to drop down to the Blue Square Premier next season. However, if the ‘massive Burnley fan’ is to have his way, the club will become virtually irrecognisable from the ones that the fans know and love right now.

He told Chad: “Do we want professional football in Mansfield or not?

“Speculation as to how we could do it is rife.

“I can’t confirm or deny anything, but this can only be a positive for the club.

“Harchester is a virtual club – Mansfield as a town and club would benefit from that name.

“Fans have to accept that to have a professional club, it has to be done on a commercial basis and be profitable – Harchester is easier to promote than Mansfield. It is as simple as that.

“This would help to make Mansfield more attractive to national concerns, rather than local business. This would help me.

“I don’t mind if the fans don’t like it or call me mad. I have been called worse and I am not in this to be popular to everyone – I tried that at York and it did not work.”

It gets better. Batchelor apparently has contacts with Red Star Belgrade after working in Serbia and has mooted the idea of an Anglo-European Cup, featuring footballing giants such as Partizan Belgrade and, wait for it, Chesterfield. Should be a crowd-puller and no mistake.

He told Chad: “”It would be great to have an Anglo-European Cup in pre-season and Chesterfield would be my first choice as the other English team involved.

“There could be two semi-finals and then a final played at Mansfield.

“Why can’t we bring Europe to Field Mill. It would fill the ground.”

At least the current stadium name is safe then! Are the above ideas that of a madman or does something drastic need to be done if smaller clubs such as Mansfield are to avoid going out of business? What would you choose to re-name your team or is the mere thought of this enough to make real football fans sick?