Evra: I Am Very Angry With Ban

Patrice Evra and David Gill have today responded to the four match ban imposed on our left back following an incident with a member of Chelsea’s groundstaff.

“I am very angry about it because I didn’t touch anybody, yet I have a four-game ban,” Evra said. “But sometimes bad things happen in life – now I am just focusing on the Club World Cup because I want to a world champion.”

United chief executive David Gill expressed the same sentiments, whilst explaining the reasons behind not appealing the decision.

“We looked at the situation carefully and discussed it with Alex and Patrice himself and as you can see from the strong statement we put out [on Tuesday] we were very disappointed by the size of the ban,” said Gill. “We thought it was disproportionate and a poor decision to be perfectly frank. But we felt given the games he would miss, the issues surrounding an appeal and the distraction it would cause at a key stage in the season, it would be better to take it on the chin and move on. Patrice is a wonderful character and I believe him 100 percent when he says he never hit the groundsman. He has our full support. We don’t like the decision and we don’t think it reflects other decisions for improper conduct charges being found. But we move on.”