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Vieira and Smith escape FA action

Alan Nixon
Friday 15 March 2002 01:00 GMT
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Patrick Vieira, Alan Smith and Mark Viduka were cleared of misconduct charges by the Football Association yesterday.

Smith and his Leeds team-mate Viduka had been facing three-match bans. However, even though the misconduct charges were brought on the recommendation of the video advisory panel, the three-man panel ruled both not guilty.

Smith had been accused of an arm-led bodycheck on Graeme Le Saux in the Worthington Cup fourth-round tie at Elland Road almost four months ago, while Viduka was charged with using an elbow against Martin Keown during the Premiership game against Arsenal at Elland Road in January. An FA statement said that the panel "accepted that both players were involved in accidental collisions which occurred in the context of a physical contact game".

Vieira appeared in front of the FA disciplinary panel for an alleged elbow on Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink during the 2-1 Boxing Day win over Chelsea. The FA said: "The disciplinary commission accepted Mr Vieira's explanation that his action was to shrug off Hasselbaink and any contact was accidental."

A Premier League commission has fined Liverpool £20,000 for their alleged illegal approach for the German international Christian Ziege, then with Middlesbrough but now with Tottenham Hotspur, two years ago. The defender, who was fined £10,000 for his part in the transfer, asked to leave the Riverside only after Liverpool made a bid of £5.5m – which exactly matched a get-out clause in his contract.

West Bromwich Albion were last night negotiating to sign two midfielders – Tranmere's Jason Koumas and Wimbledon's Kevin Cooper.

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