Adrian Bevington believes the FA has a robust case ahead of the appeal hearing over Wayne Rooney's three-match ban.
England striker to learn his fate after hearing on Thursday
Adrian Bevington believes the Football Association has a robust case ahead of the appeal hearing over Wayne Rooney's three-match ban.
Rooney is set to miss all three of England's Euro 2012 group games after being given a three-match suspension by UEFA following his red card in the final qualifier against Montenegro.
The FA appealed against the length of the sentence and the Manchester United striker will learn his fate at a hearing in Nyon on Thursday.
Bevington remains hopeful that the FA will be successful in their appeal, feeling they have a strong case to have the ban reduced.
Robust case
"We are going out to Switzerland with Fabio [Capello], Wayne will also join us following his game with Manchester United in the Champions League on Wednesday night.
"We will be in Nyon with our own legal support team on Thursday and we will present our case and see how we take it from there," Bevington told
Sky Sports News.
"It would be wrong of me to try and second guess where the case goes and also to go into any real detail what our case actually includes at this stage.
"The important element is to present it to UEFA and let them make their judgement from there.
"We feel we have put a very robust case together with some evidence from Wayne, Fabio Capello, from the Montenegrin player [Miodrag Dzudovic] and also from the specialist external legal advice and our own internal in-house lawyers that we work with as well."
Arsenal's Russia international Andrey Arshavin was banned for the first two group games of Euro 2008 after he was sent off in a qualifier against Andorra and the FA believes that precedent could boost their chances of having Rooney's suspension reduced.
"There are various precedents that can be referenced over time and that is something that UEFA may have to factor in, but again it would be wrong of me to actually say too much as I don't want to prejudice the case at this time," added Bevington.
Reduction
Capello has raised question marks over Rooney's inclusion in his squad for Euro 2012 after revealing he will not make a decision on whether to pick the striker until after this week's appeal.
The Italian had previously indicated that he would select Rooney regardless, but has now admitted he could leave out the Manchester United forward if his three-game suspension stands.
Bevington admits the final decision over Rooney's involvement will be made by Capello, but that he hopes to win their appeal at UEFA.
"Well that's what Fabio said and ultimately Fabio will determine how he picks his squad," continued Bevington. "It would be wrong for me to second guess what Fabio's thought process will be with regard his squad selection, I will leave that one to him.
"But clearly there's no getting away from it, we go there on Wednesday into Thursday hoping that we get at least some form of reduction from the three matches."
