Bournemouth have stood up in defence of their defender Tyrone Mings in the wake of the player's five-game ban from the FA on Wednesday.
Mings, who was charged for his stamp on Manchester United'sZlatan Ibrahimovic during the 1-1 draw between the sides on the weekend, apologised to the striker after the match, and insisted that his actions were not intentional.
AFC Bournemouth's Tyrone Mings will serve a five-match suspension, following an Independent Regulatory Commission hearing today.
Yet the FA apparentlydid not see it that way, and have made it so that the 23-year-old won't feature for his team for the next five games.
"AFC Bournemouth are extremely disappointed with the FA Regulatory Commission's decision to find Tyrone Mings guilty of the charges against him and impose a five-game suspension, following Saturday's incident at Old Trafford involving Zlatan Ibrahimovic," read the statement on the Cherries'official website.
"We will study the detailed reasons of the commission once they become available but find it extraordinary that the charges can be described as ˜proven' when there is absolutely no evidence to prove the incident was intentional.It is our strongly held belief “ backed up by our relationship with the player, and knowledge of his background and character “ that it was an accidental collision.
"Tyrone twice apologised to Ibrahimovic during the match for the accidental collision and also reiterated that there was no intent straight after the final whistle in a series of television interviews.
"We fully support our player. Tyrone has an excellent disciplinary record and has not been sent off in 75 matches as a professional. During that time he has only received 13 yellow cards “ the last of which came in April 2015.
"The club will be making no further comment."
Ibrahimovic has since been hit with a three-game ban for a separate incident in which he elbowed Mings in the face while battling for an aerial ball. This means that the Swedishforward will miss United's crucial FA Cup clash with Chelsea next week, as well as Premier League fixtures against Middlesbrough and West Brom.
Kavan Flavius is a regular contributor to the Official Chelsea Guest Fan Blog, find him on Twitter@KavanFlavius.