Football
9y

West Brom's Chris Brunt set for personal hearing on FA charge

West Brom's Chris Brunt has requested a personal hearing after being charged by the Football Association for allegedly verbally abusing a match official, Press Association Sport understands.

The midfielder is alleged to have used abusive and/or insulting words and/or behaviour in the tunnel after Saturday's 2-0 FA Cup quarterfinal defeat to Aston Villa.

Referee Anthony Taylor sent off Albion's Claudio Yacob and Villa's Jack Grealish during the game, which saw Villa progress through to the semifinals where they will play Blackburn or Liverpool.

Baggies boss Tony Pulis steered well clear of getting involved at Thursday's press conference ahead of their game against Stoke.

"That's with Richard [Garlick, director of football administration]  and the powers that be," he said. "That's in the if, buts and maybes for Saturday.

"We don't know if he'll be charged or if he's banned. We're not sure yet, they're still talking."

Both Albion and Villa are awaiting the results of FA and police investigations after crowd trouble at Villa Park where home fans twice invaded the pitch.

West Brom supporters threw seats into sections of the Villa fans during the second half with Pulis insisting the day after the match that anyone found guilty should be banned for life.

Pulis remained detached from all disciplinary issues on Thursday, ranging from Brunt's case to the crowd trouble and whether his winger Callum McManaman was struck in the tunnel after the game.

"That's ongoing and it's something I'm not involved in," he said about the disturbing scenes. "That's down to the powers-that-be who are above me. It's up to them to sort that out and we'll see where that takes us. But at the moment I don't think there's any comment from ourselves or the FA."

Pulis did, however, reiterate the need for common sense from supporters.

"You want derbies to be passionate and committed but there are certain levels, certain rules, that we should all stay and work within," he said.

"If people have broken those rules then they should be punished and punished properly, because you can't have a situation like we've had 20 or 30 years back where it's just chaos. We've moved on as a country from that and we have to make sure we don't allow it to come back in."

As for possible lifetime bans for supporters, Pulis said: "That's down to the club."

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