GRAEME Le Saux and David Batty could well face severe financial punishment - at the very least - from Blackburn Rovers following their incredible bust-up in Moscow last night.

The two Ewood and England team-mates clashed angrily in the opening minutes of the club's UEFA Champions' League game against Spartak.

And the Football Association, appalled at the sight of two England internationals coming to blows in such a high-profile game, today urged UEFA, the European governing body, to take action.

The red mist that came down in Russia could well prove costly for the two internationals.

A very subdued Rovers party lifted off from Moscow in the early hours of the morning - Russian time - and everyone was staying tight-lipped. The subject was plainly not on the agenda for discussion, especially by the two men involved.

But I understand from an excellent source that an apology was offered in the dressing room.

Rovers will now conduct their own investigation into what exactly happened during those moments of madness in Moscow.

Though manager Ray Harford will have had a clear enough view of his own not to need too much help.

For the confrontation, which could have become more serious but for skipper Tim Sherwood's timely intervention, happened close to the dug-outs.

I have never seen the Ewood boss as affected as he was by last night's incident. He was clearly upset - in fact much more than that. And understandably so. The KGB would have had a hard job getting anyone in the official party to comment on the clash!

And Harford was reluctant to discuss it both at the post-match Press conference and this morning.

But, unless there are mitigating circumstances, one or both of the players involved will surely be penalised financially. And that could cost them a couple of weeks wages, in other words, thousands of pounds.

For the incident did nothing for the reputation of Blackburn Rovers or English football.

Le Saux played part of the second half with his left hand strapped before being substituted.

Whether that was to do with his clash with team-mate Batty no-one was saying.

But one member of the party claimed it stemmed from a different incident.

It all left the Ewood manager in a tremendously difficult situation and, while he will look at video evidence before sitting down with the players involved, he knows what he saw.

"I would be prepared to look at the video but I would rather think that what I saw at the time was right," he said.

With the squad arriving back in England shortly before 3am this morning, today was not the time to discuss the matter.

Rovers chairman Rob Coar said: "We are disappointed with the incident and Ray will sit down with the players in the next couple of days.

"If disciplinary action is thought appropriate it will be dealt with in-house."

But I am sure that Harford will act quickly and decisively to get to the core of the problem.

Whether it was just a spur of the moment issue between two players who do have fiery temperaments, or if it goes deeper remains to be seen.

But for the good of the club it must be solved as quickly as possible.

There is, however, no suggestion that the FA will weigh in with their own sanctions, such as suspending the pair for Terry Venables' game against Portugal next month.

That would hardly affect Batty, out of England favour this season, but it would hurt first choice left-back Le Saux.

An FA spokesman said: "We were very concerned about what happened in that match and we feel something must be done.

"However, the match comes under the jurisdiction of UEFA and we will be writing to them asking them to investigate the incident."

Mr Coar said he was surprised at the FA's involvement.

He said: "I thought UEFA were the governing body.

"It is a bit like asking the deputy headmaster to remind the headmaster to do something."

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