West Brom's Jay Rodriguez cleared of racial abuse after allegation not proven

Rodriguez attended a hearing at Wembley on Wednesday, and after a period of deliberation, the Football Association announced the results on Friday afternoon.

It means the Baggies striker escapes a five-match ban for racial abuse, although the FA stressed the complaint made by Bong was in ‘absolute good faith’.

Former Albion boss Alan Pardew spoke in Rodriguez’s favour at the hearing and the England international also received character references from Mauricio Pochettino, who he played under at Southampton, and Eddie Howe, who was his manager at Burnley.

Liverpool midfielder Adam Lallana, former Albion striker Shane Long, and ex-Southampton team-mates Kelvin Davies and Maya Yoshida also provided character references.

The independent panel concluded: "We could not say that any of the other evidence or competing arguments lead us to prefer one over the other.

“When the burden and standard of proof is applied, we could not properly say we were satisfied that the player probably spoke the offending words.”

The FA released a statement this afternoon saying: “Having considered all the evidence, the Independent Regulatory Commission determined that on the balance of probabilities the allegation was not proven.

“The FA wishes to stress that there has been no suggestion by any party involved in this case that this was a malicious or fabricated complaint. The FA is completely satisfied that this was a complaint made in absolute good faith.

“The FA takes all allegations of discrimination extremely seriously and continues to encourage all participants who believe that they have been the subject of or witness to discriminatory abuse to report this through the appropriate channels.

“The FA would like to express its full thanks to all parties for their full cooperation during the disciplinary process.”

Richard Garlick, Albion director of football administration, attended the hearing for the club, who have remained supportive of Rodriguez throughout the process.

He said: “Everyone at the club is delighted for Jay because this has been a trying period for him.

“He has always maintained his innocence and we are naturally pleased the Commission has dismissed the charge.”