Barclays English Premier League
Wenger won't be silenced
Afp, London
Arsene Wenger insists he will not be silenced by the threat of punishment from the English Football Association over his defiant response to their suspension of Emmanuel Adebayor.Wenger faces a touchline ban or fine after launching a furious attack on the governing body following their decision to give Adebayor a three-match ban for his red card in Arsenal's League Cup final defeat against Chelsea. The Arsenal manager had already been charged by the FA for comments made to referee Steve Bennett during a match against Portsmouth in December, as well as receiving a 10,000 pounds (19,400 dollars) fine following his row with Alan Pardew. And this week he has been asked to explain why he called linesman Darren Cann a liar after the official told referee Howard Webb to send off Adebayor for allegedly throwing a punch at Frank Lampard. Even Arsenal vice-chairman David Dein has urged the Frenchman to temper his comments in case he incurs the FA's wrath again. But Wenger is determined to speak his mind whatever the consequences because he believes Arsenal have been the victims of a gross miscarriage of justice. "I feel very angry because it has all been done so quickly," he said. "We have no right to defend ourselves. "You can say 'OK, I will lie down every time the FA says something even if it is wrong'. But I don't accept that. If I am punished, I don't mind, but I feel strongly enough for this club that when it is wrongly punished I have the right to come out and say it. "If you tomorrow are manager of Arsenal and you can prove Adebayor did not intend to punch Lampard, would you say 'The FA is so big, thank you very much', whatever they decide? "I have spoken to David Dein about this. He is cautious and tells me 'Don't speak, don't say this, don't say that'. "I can say what I think. They can put me up on the wall and shoot me down but it still doesn't make that decision right. "If they don't like my words, they don't like it. I will never change. Would you like to see me with a dictionary after the game? I could think 'Oh no, that's a little bit too strong, what's the synonym of that word because I could be punished by the FA'." Wenger's side have found themselves in hot water with the FA on a regular basis during his 10-year reign at Arsenal and, while he is loath to openly accuse them of conducting a witch-hunt against his club, he is worried by the way the Gunners have been treated. "I don't want to go so far as to say they have got it in for us. If it is that, it is so sad that it is not worth talking about. "The only thing I will say is that the numbers are there. We are the team which commits less fouls against our opponents, but we are the team that gets punished more. "For every five fouls we get a yellow card. There are some teams who only get a yellow card every twelve fouls. So we must be very clumsy. "We who live in top level football fight every three days to be competitive and I don't think we are on the same wavelength with the FA on that. "The FA has one responsibility, it is to respect football." Wenger, whose side host Reading on Saturday, has studied frame-by-frame video footage of the League Cup brawl and believes the images show conclusively that Adebayor was wrongly punished. He is willing to use video evidence to show the FA and the match officials got it wrong. "The report says he aimed to punch Lampard," Wenger said. "I say today not only did he not punch Lampard, he also did not aim to punch Lampard. I am capable of proving it in front of the whole Press and the FA. "They can say what they want about me but that decision is completely wrong. With professional editors we can show that Adebayor never intended to throw any punch. "We have seen it. Image by image we can prove he did not intend or aim to punch Lampard. It is as simple as that."
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