QPR's Barton charged by FA

London - Queens Park Rangers midfielder Joey Barton was charged with two counts of violent conduct by the Football Association on Monday following his red card against Manchester City on Sunday.

Barton was sent off for elbowing Carlos Tevez and then kicked Sergio Aguero before attempting to headbutt Vincent Kompany.

The FA said in a statement: "The FA has today (Monday) charged Queens Park Rangers midfielder Joey Barton in relation to two acts of alleged violent conduct during Sunday's match against Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium.

"Following the player's dismissal in the 54th minute of the fixture, there followed two incidents involving Manchester City's Sergio Aguero and Vincent Kompany.

"As Barton had already been dismissed, both of these incidents fell outside of the jurisdiction of the referee."

Barton has until 18:00 local time (17:00GMT) tomorrow (Tuesday) to respond to the charges.

Earlier, QPR's Malaysian owner Tony Fernandes said manager Mark Hughes would decide what punishment, if any, the club would impose on Barton following the player's latest red card, which came in a match where victory gave City the Premier League title and Rangers avoided relegation despite the final day defeat.

Barton is now set to be banned for QPR's first four games next season but he could end up with a longer suspension - possibly up to nine matches - from the FA, although nothing the governing body do would prohibit the London club taking internal disciplinary action.

Fernandes, who bought QPR before the start of the season, was adamant he would play no role in deciding any in-house punishment for the 29-year-old Barton.

"I will leave that to the manager and the chief executive (Phil Beard)," Fernandes told Sky Sports on Monday.

"Now we just want to focus on the positives. It's a little bit early to talk about that.

"I will not step in. My goal at the club is to bring in the right infrastructure and the right people, I leave the manager to manage the players.

"Of course the board will be involved, but we will let him come to us and say: 'This is what I would like to do'."

After the match, Barton quickly pointed the finger at Tevez in a series of posts on Twitter.

"Can do nothing but apologise to the players and the fans. Still don't think its a sending off," he wrote.

"The head was never gone at any stage, once I'd been sent off, one of our players suggested I should try to take 1 of theirs with me...Never worked but god loves a trier.

"Think a few people are forgetting Tevez started the fracas by throwing a punch to the head...?

"Right am off for a bit. Gonna enjoy QPR still being a Premiership club with all my team-mates. Cheerio people."

But Barton again used the social networking site to launch an expletive-laden attack against his former Newcastle manager, Alan Shearer, who'd criticised the player's conduct in his role as a pundit on the BBC's Match of the Day.