Asprilla and Curle to face FA charges

PHIL SHAW and ALAN NIXON

Faustino Asprilla, for whom Newcastle paid pounds 7.5m early this month, may sit out as many as six of the Premiership leaders' 11 matches during the title run-in after the Football Association charged him last night with two counts of misconduct following clashes with Keith Curle in Saturday's draw at Manchester City.

Curle, who appeared to be elbowed in the face by the Colombian striker in one incident and butted by him in an altercation after the final whistle, has also been charged with one count of misconduct.

The charges, which can each result in a suspension of between one and three games if proven, came at the end of a day in which senior FA officials studied video evidence of the clashes between Asprilla and Curle seen by millions on Match of the Day on Saturday.

The report of the match referee, Martin Bodenham, arrived by fax in the morning, and contained comments on the second incident by the linesman, Andrew Martin, who tried to separate the players.

Announcing the decision to charge the pair, the FA's Claire Tomlinson said: "It is clear both players have a case to answer." Asprilla and Curle have 14 days in which to answer the charges.

Asprilla has already pleaded his innocence over the alleged elbowing, which occurred as Curle clambered on his back. "I was trying to push him away, trying to escape. He had his arms around me and I wanted to get free... I didn't know I'd hit him in the face." Of the second incident, he is reported to have said he merely "pretended" to butt the City captain.

During his time with Parma in Italy, Newcastle's record signing was twice sent off, once for using an elbow on Internazionale's Nicola Berti. He was also convicted for a minor firearms offence in Colombia.

Newcastle's closest challengers, Manchester United, have offered Parma pounds 2.5m for Asprilla's former colleague, Fernando Couto, only to be told the Serie A club want pounds 4m for Portugal's first-choice central defender.

Parma also informed Alex Ferguson, the United manager, that they face competition from Barcelona. Couto, 26, has been left out of recent matches, frustrating Ferguson's efforts to watch him again after gaining a favourable impression when the Portuguese met France in Paris last month.

United had Couto watched against Germany last week. After losing out to Lazio in his attempt to sign South Africa's Mark Fish, Ferguson then made his move for Couto, inquiring about a loan arrangement before making a bid.

The transfers of Ilie Dumitrescu and Marc Hottiger are no nearer to being resolved, despite the start of talks over the question of work permits between officials of the Department for Education and Employment and representatives of the FA, the Premier League and the Professional Footballers' Association.

West Ham have agreed to pay Tottenham pounds 1.2m for Dumitrescu, a Romanian, and Everton hope to buy Hottiger, who is Swiss, for pounds 700,000 from Newcastle. But neither has played sufficient Premiership matches to satisfy the criteria for issuing a permit, although both appeared in the requisite 75 per cent of their country's games during the appropriate period.

Gerry Francis, the Spurs manager, has given Reading permission to talk to Darren Caskey, the reserve midfielder, about a pounds 700,000 deal.

Mark Bright, the Sheffield Wednesday striker, may join Birmingham in exchange for either the midfielder Jonathan Hunt or defender Michael Johnson, with Wednesday receiving a cash adjustment. Barry Fry, the Birmingham manager, is also pursuing Marcus Stewart, the Bristol Rovers striker, and Paul Devlin, the Notts County winger.

Steve Claridge, who missed a penalty in Birmingham's Coca-Cola Cup defeat at Leeds on Sunday, complained yesterday that he was "mentally shattered and sick to death" over the saga of his on-off move to Leicester, now apparently off again.

Steve Crawford, Raith Rovers' Scottish international striker, last night rejected a pounds 500,000 switch to Aberdeen because of a disagreement with Roy Aitken, the Dons' manager, about his projected role.