FA ban is hammer blow for Cottee bid

Tony Cottee, the man behind a consortium trying to buy West Ham, is banned from football by the Football Association after failing to pay a £15,000 fine.

Standard Sport has learned that the former Hammers star has not paid the outstanding sum to the FA after being punished for the irresponsible sale of tickets for the Worthington Cup Final between Leicester and Spurs in 1999.

The so-called Leicester seven - Cottee, Andrew Impey, Arnar Gunnlaugsson, Scott Taylor, Graham Fenton, chief scout Jim Melrose and academy director David Nish were fined a total of £75,000 after they sold their tickets for the game to touts.

The tickets found their way into the hands of Tottenham supporters and led to a severe breakdown in segregation and fighting between rival sets of supporters.

The scandal only came to light after young mother Ruth Lelacheur was punched in the face by Spurs supporter Jonatah Edmonds, whose ticket could be traced back to Impey.

Although the outstanding fine will not stop Cottee pressing ahead with his attempts to buy out West Ham chairman Terry Brown, the revelation is an acute embarrassment to him as he tries to secure the backing he needs for the takeover.

He is banned only from matters relating to playing and football management - a punishment which has stood since December 2002. West Ham have already sacked Cottee from his job as a match-day host in one of the Upton Park lounges and writing a regular column in the magazine.

Meanwhile it emerged today that Malcolm Glazer will press ahead with his £800 million move for Manchester United despite the board of the club failing to recommend his takeover proposal.

Glazer's backers insist that they will not finance a hostile takeover but it is understood they will back him as long as the board do not reject his 300p a share offer outright.