Aston Villa v Birmingham City: Paul Robinson lands FA charge over clash with James Chester
Blues captain Paul Robinson is facing a ban which would end his season after being charged by the FA with alleged violent conduct, following a clash with Villa skipper James Chester in Sunday's Second City derby.
The 38-year-old appeared to lash out at Chester seconds after Gabriel Agbonlahor had scored the only goal of the game in the 68th minute.
Neither referee Simon Hooper nor his assistants spotted the incident at the time but the FA have decided to take retrospective action after an independent disciplinary panel reviewed video footage.
Robinson has until 6pm on Wednesday to respond to the charge.
If found guilty, he faces a three-game ban which would rule him out of relegation-threatened Blues' remaining two fixtures, at home to Huddersfield and away to Bristol City.
Sunday's derby defeat means Blues sit just two points above the Championship relegation zone.
Villa owner Tony Xia had led calls for the FA to take action against Robinson after the incident was first raised by supporters on social media.
Responding to a fan's post of the clip on Twitter, Xia wrote: "That's really unacceptable disgusting! @EFL @FA."
The Chinese businessman later added: "If it's a deliberate assault, then it's unacceptable. We will do whatever to protect our players; if it's just an accident then forget it."
An FA statement read: "Off the ball incidents which are not seen at the time by the match officials are referred to a panel of three former elite referees.
"Each referee panel member will review the video footage independently of one another to determine whether they consider it a sending-off offence. For retrospective action to be taken, and an FA charge to follow, the decision of the panel must be unanimous."
