Following Ben Thatcher\'s terrible \"foul\", or assault as I prefer to refer to it as, on Portsmouth\'s Pedro Mendes, this petition calls for an increase in the number of games the player has been banned for by the English FA. Having run the best part of thirty yards, Ben Thatcher raised his elbow and connected directly with the head of Pedro Mendes. The result of this violent assault was the player remaining unconscious for a number of minutes before being taken to hospital. He was kept overnight, and received tests on both his brain and nervous system. The result of this was that Ben Thatcher\'s football club and employers, Manchester City, fined the player six weeks wages and banned him for six games. The English FA have subsequently banned the player for eight matches, running concurrently with the original ban. I petition The FA to increase this ban forthwith and make a clear statement that violence in football is wrong, and impose a punishment which reflects the seriousness of this incident.

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