English Football’s Longest Bans

Celebrate Joey Barton’s latest misdemeanours with a list of the longest bans handed out in the English game:
David Layne, Peter Swan and Tony Kay (Sheff Weds): banned for life (but ban lifted after 7 years) after betting on their own team to lose, 1965
Billy Cook (Oldham Athletic): 12 months for refusing to leave the pitch after being sent off against Middlesbrough for persistent fouling, 1915
Eric Cantona (Man Utd): 9 months and 120 hours community service for a kung fu kick on a Crystal Palace fan, 1995
Mark Bosnich (Chelsea): 9 months after failing a drugs test for cocaine, 2003
Rio Ferdinand (Man Utd): 8 months for forgetting to turn up for a drugs test, 2003
Kolo Toure (Man City): 6 months for failing a drugs test, which he claimed was caused by taking his wife’s diet pills, 2011
Vinnie J...