The FA will look like hypocrites if they fine Pep for his yellow ribbon protest

THE FA have got themselves into a self-righteous mess with Pep Guardiola – and they only have themselves to blame.

OK, on the surface, I can understand they feel they have to stick to the rules, so fining him for wearing the yellow ribbon in support of jailed Catalan politicians probably makes sense in a stuffy office somewhere. It doesn’t in real life, though. How can that be wrong, when Guardiola is only supporting people he believes are wrongly imprisoned, and the FA be right in taking sponsorship from betting companies, which they were still doing until eight months ago?

And how can it be right to charge him with a serious offence, when the FA themselves fought FIFA for more than a year for the right to wear poppies on the England shirt... when it was deemed “a political slogan”? What is a political slogan, anyway? Poppies are a symbol of national feeling. So is Guardiola’s ribbon. It starts to all look a bit hypocritical when you look at it like that, especially when the City manager himself says it isn’t a political statement, just support for people he admires.

I know exactly what he is talking about. I was fined by UEFA for wearing a shirt (below) in support of people I admired and supported.

They were 500 Liverpool dock workers sacked unfairly – and, in my opinion, illegally – and even UEFA themselves admitted the decision to fine me was stupid.

Honestly, that was the maddest time of my career.

Four days after that fine, I went to Arsenal and was awarded a penalty, even though David Seaman hadn’t fouled me.

Instinctively, I told the referee it wasn’t a pen.

For that, I was sent a fax by FIFA praising me for my sportsmanship. It was signed by Sepp Blatter – a week after UEFA had fined me for breaking their rules for something I have always felt was far more sporting and responsible!

People know all about those two stories, of course, and they show how foolish it is to try and keep football’s head in the sand when it comes to “politics”. What is politics? Is Manchester City’s ownership politics? Is PSG’s? Should they be fined?

What people don’t know so well about my dockers story was what followed. I got fined £900 and Liverpool fans were so incensed by that, they sent buckets around at the next match to raise money to pay the fine.

I didn’t need it and didn’t want it – me and Steve McManaman had already donated far more to the campaign supporting the dockers in the first place. We asked for the money to be given to support the dockers more.

Some of it was used to help open The Casa, which is a resource for the community in Liverpool offering legal advice and support to the people of the city.

Now, is that political, or exactly what all football clubs – who are still there for the community, after all – should be involved in?

The most important thing that came out of that episode was that the fans themselves believed in what I did – and supported it.

They raised so much money in support of the sacked dock workers and helped people treated unjustly.

Guardiola is doing that, too. He is due to face a hearing this week and I hope the FA see sense.

Mind you, sense is not always a word that could be used to describe me. That whole dockers thing, Steve McManaman and me had discussed the idea because I think he had a relative who had been involved.

We said before the Cup Winners’ Cup game, against Norwegian club Brann in 1997, we’d wear the T-shirts under our kit and take our tops off at the end to make a small statement.

Except I scored my second goal in the game, went screaming to stand in front of all the photographers in the ground – and then ripped my Liverpool shirt above my head.

As small statements go, it had quite an impact.