Shhhhh--It's a secret!

Shefield United manager Kevin Blackwell has been charged by the FA, along with his assistant Sam Ellis, for a rather unusual football misdemeanor:

FA regulation E25: Improper conduct in relation to language and/or behaviour towards Doping Control Officials.

The incident occured after the game at Plymouth Argyle on December 5th, so we have two questions:

A: Why did the FA wait so long?
B: What happened?

Its hardly a surprise if Kevin Blackwell dislikes the FA’s doping officers; his goalkeeper, Paddy Kenny, was banned for 9 months after testing positive for the stimulant ephedrine when it transpired that Kenny had just consumed the wrong kind of cold remedy (d’oh).

At the time, Blackwell considered the ruling harsh:

We know Paddy’s not a drugs cheat and they’ve accepted that. We think nine months for a mistake out of a medicine chest seems harsh. This case shows that before a player takes anything out of his medicine cabinet, he has to check it intently.  If you’ve got a bad chest and you take something to relieve pain it isn’t going to make you quicker, faster, taller.”

While Blackwell and Ellis have until the 18th of this month to appeal against the charge, the incident on December the 5th remains a complete mystery; As does the FA’s delay in bringing the charge for something that happened 3 months ago. There seems to be no information on what happened at Argyle and the Sheffield United press office played dumb when I called, claiming only to know as much as what the FA website actually stated. Surely that’s not the case…?

The FA will soon be sick of Blackwell as the ‘doping officer’ charge isn’t the only one hanging over his head; the FA have also charged him with improper conduct in relation to post-match comments made after United’s game against Nottingham Forest on February the 16th.

After the match, Blackwell criticized the referee, Nigel Miller, for sending striker Darius Henderson off for use of an elbow. He has until the 19th of March to appeal.