Spare a thought for Joey Barton ... and his victims

Spare a thought for Joey Barton, the Newcastle midfielder, jailbird and, in the vernacular of the terraces, a bit of a nutter. He has just been released from prison after being sentenced to six months for inflicting grievous bodily harm on then-teammate Ousmane Dabo in a training ground punch-up last year. No, that's wrong. He only got a suspended sentence for beating up Dabo so badly that he almost lost the use of one eye. Barton, 25, has, in fact, just been released from prison for beating up a teenager outside a McDonalds in Liverpool - not, incidentally, the same teenager whom Barton assaulted in 2005 in Thailand. Nor, indeed, the other teenager in whose eye he stubbed out a lit cigar at a party in 2004.

Anyway, poor Joey has not only been severely punished by the courts for beating up someone or other (though certainly not the Liverpool taxi driver whom he was accused of assaulting last year - he was cleared of that charge) but he also now faces an unprecedented playing ban and massive fine from the Football Association. Despite protests from Newcastle, football's governing body in England has decided to get tough with Barton and charge him with violent conduct...something they manifestly failed to do after Barton savagely kicked Dickson Etuhu in the derby game against Sunderland last November.

Barton has until August 13 to request a personal hearing and Newcastle say he will do just that. Quite why remains a mystery as he has already admitted in court assaulting Dabo when the two were teammates at Manchester City. Newcastle are trying to maintain that Barton has suffered enough. They have fined him, they say, for the McDonalds incident and did not pay him his £65,000-a-week (Dh 467,000-odd) wages during the six weeks or so that he was in prison.

And The Times has revealed that they have also banned him from using the corporate boxes at St James's Park and from getting the occasional use of one of the club's chauffeurs - something that might have come in handy for the self-confessed alcoholic. Newcastle feel that, by the FA charging Barton after he has already been punished by the courts, they are being unfairly penalised because his misdemeanours on the Dabo front were committed when he played for somebody else.

The club said in a statement over the weekend: "Newcastle United can confirm that it has received documentation from the Football Association stating that it is charging Joey Barton with misconduct in relation to the incident that occurred with Ousmane Dabo in May, 2007, at a time when he was a registered player of Manchester City. The FA, though, is determined to show that it can keep its own house in order even if, at times, it clearly can't.

Meanwhile, Dabo himself, who now plays for Lazio, believes that the 'punishment' meted out by Newcastle, in addition to the unflagging support Barton has had from Kevin Keegan, the manager, amounts to a complete disregard for basic standards of decency. "English clubs teach you lots of lessons," the Frenchman told The Sun newspaper. "But in this case, they truly lack morals. As for Barton, he is back in training and Keegan reckons that, despite his enforced absence away from the football field, it will not take him long to regain full fitness.

Just how much good that will do him with the FA possibly about to impose a playing ban that could stretch of 15 matches, remains to be seen. So spare a thought for Joey Barton. And, in passing, for his victims, too. @Email:sports@thenational.ae