McLaren shooting: fans not responsible

The Football Association today moved quickly to quash suggestions that yesterday's non-fatal shooting of England football manager Steve McLaren was an attempted assassination carried out by a disgruntled fan. The shooting came just days after England's latest poor result, the 1-0 defeat against Spain at Old Trafford, but an FA spokesman denied any link. "It is complete nonsense to say that any of our loyal England fans was responsible for this incident." Commenting on the two shotgun wounds sustained by McLaren, who left hospital this morning, he added: "This was just one of those training ground arguments, and a player got wound up. It's been dealt with internally and everyone's friends again. It was handbags stuff really."