Rooney handed three-match Euro 2012 ban

Rooney was sent off for kicking Montenegro’s Miodrag Dzudovic.

It means Rooney will be ineligible for first three matches of next year’s European football championships in Poland and Ukraine.

Under the terms of the ban, Rooney will be able to lodge an appeal against the verdict “within three days of the dispatch of the reasoned decision”.

Responding to the Uefa decision, an FA statement said: “Further to Uefa’s decision to impose a three-match suspension on Wayne Rooney following his sending off against Montenegro, the FA await the full reasons from the disciplinary committee, and will give full consideratino to the decision internally before deciding on any response to Uefa or making any further public comment.”

England manager Fabio Capello described Roooney’s offence during the Monenegro game as a “silly mistake”.

The striker had always been in danger of receiving a three-match ban, despite the Football Association submitting a dossier of evidence pleading for leniency, including a letter from Rooney himself.

Rooney’s father had been arrested several days before the Montenegro match as part of a police investigation into suspicious betting patterns.

What on earth to do with Wayne Rooney?
Should the FA appeal, and risk irking Uefa further?, asks Channel 4 News Sports Reporter Keme Nzerem. It's not as if the striker hasn't got form - sent off as he was against Portugal in the 2006 World Cup, allegedly swearing at a ref during a friendly before the World Cup in South Africa last summer - and then insulting England fans to the TV cameras after that miserable goalless draw against Algeria.

Yes, he left the field without demur, argued the FA's letter to Uefa pleading leniency. But a straight red card for kicking Montenegro's Miodrag Dzudovic in Podgorica last Friday was considered "assault on another player", and for that the sanction is straightforward. A three-game ban.

Time and time again England's best striker has shown he hasn't the maturity to truly consider himself one of the world's greatest. Which brings us on to the dilmena facing the England coach. Three games on the sidelines means taking Rooney to Euro 2012 in Poland and Ukraine next summer might well be a wasted seat on the plane. He'll miss all the group games - so if England don't qualify (and don't bet against it - as any England fan will readily concur) their star striker will be going home without playing at all.

And if England do qualify, Rooney will be taking the place of whoever has helped the team progress thus far. Capello has already indicated he might not feature during the autumn friendlies - against world champions Spain, and Sweden. Rooney might be only 25 but England need to break in new strikers. The likes of Danny Welbeck and Andy Carroll have yet to cement their credentials.

Meanwhile when the FA receive Uefa's full report they'll consider their next move. Reducing Rooney's ban to two games will solve some of their problems - but not all.