Soccer: Owner slams jailed striker

Wigan Athletic have suggested that their convicted striker Marlon King should be banned for a further 18 months after his 18 months jail sentence for groping a young woman in a nightclub and then breaking her nose after she spurned his "disgusting" advances.

Wigan Athletic owner Dave Whelan hit back at suggestions that disgraced striker Marlon King should be allowed a career after his release from prison by calling on the Football Association to ban him for twice as long as his 18-month jail term. King, jailed last week after being found guilty of sexual assault and actual bodily harm, yesterday received support of sorts from Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, who suggested people will look to sign the 29-year-old when he is a free man.

But Whelan, who has already declared his intention to sack King, came out fighting when he labelled the player a convict and revealed that he was surprised when former manager Steve Bruce signed him in 2008.

Whelan told Sky Sports News: "I do not want convicts at Wigan Athletic. Some club will sign him when he gets out - they'll take the risk. But they shouldn't.

The FA should stop him playing professional football for 18 months after he has served his sentence. They should ask themselves if we want people with criminal records like this lad, especially with the type of crime he has committed over his career. This is not just a one off.

"They should say: 'Well, we have had enough of that'. I can't see him coming back. He is absolutely sacked. We will not tolerate this kind of behaviour.

"It will be very, very difficult for any club to stick their neck out and take Marlon on. I cannot really see him coming back as a professional. A lot of people will say you do something wrong and you get a sentence and when you have completed it, you are allowed back in. But I wouldn't allow him back in.

"We tell our players they have got to have standards and set standards, particularly in their private lives. I sat him down at the start of the season and personally told him this was the last chance for him to make it as a professional. To be fair to him, he worked harder in training."

The Jamaica international, who was celebrating both his wife's pregnancy and scoring a winning goal hours earlier, was repeatedly cold-shouldered by women revellers in London's packed Soho Revue Bar last December. When a slightly-built university student became the latest to recoil from his touch, he lost his temper and in an outburst of "completely gratuitous violence" lashed out, "smashing" her to the floor.

His single clenched fist blow was so powerful that two other revellers - one of them holding on to his arm - were also sent flying. While bouncers moved in to restrain the muscular £5 million striker, friends rushed to the aid of his victim.

As she was helped to her feet, blood poured from her shattered nose, London's Southwark Crown Court heard.

The 29-year-old, from Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire, claimed he was a victim of "mistaken identity". But after hearing overwhelming evidence from a string of witnesses, including a football coach who insisted he was the assailant, the jury decided he was lying.

He was unanimously convicted of sexually assaulting the 20-year-old and causing actual bodily harm.