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Archived News from December 2003

MORE ON CURLE FINE
18th December 2003 15:08


CURLE FINED £500 BY FA
CHAD website
STAGS manager Keith Curle was today fined £500 by the FA in London after pleading guilty to an 'improper behaviour' charge when he walked onto the pitch at half-time during Stags' stormy game at Cambridge in September.
But, thankfully, he has escaped any sort of touchline ban.
Curle was furious when referee Lee Cable sent off Rhys Day and Iyseden Christie and tried to approach the referee to ask him why he had sent them off but ended up embroiled in a row with a police officer instead.
Although Mr Cable agreed with Curle that the police officer had made the situation worse with his aggressive attitude, he had still felt Curle had walked towards him in an aggressive manner and asked him to spend the second half in the stand, which he did.
Curle said: "I pleaded guilty today and then talked about the circumstances of the game in my mitigation and in the end I got a fine of £500 for entering the field of play.
"I know it was wrong so I appreciate the leniency of the FA and respect their decision. They were obviously aware of the circumstances of the highly charged game when reaching their verdict.
"I will look upon this as a learning curve in my role as manager. I often take a few minutes to look at things before I go in to speak to the players at half time to make sure I say the right thing. So I will have to do that with officials.
"It is one of those things and now I have to put it behind me, learn from it and concentrate on the league games ahead which is the main priority."
Amazingly, the nine men of Mansfield went on to win the game.
This was Curle's second brush with the FA this season, Stags already having been found guilty of 'failing to control their players' after a dust-up at Swansea in a game in which Stags also had two men red-carded in controversial circumstances.

 

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