The full details of Kiko Casilla’s FA hearing are now in the public domain.

The governing body have published a report documenting the case against the Leeds goalkeeper after he was charged with racially abusing Jonathan Leko back in November.

The stopper was eventually handed an eight-game ban, but the governing body initially wanted to hand him a ten-match suspension before it was deemed too harsh a punishment.

What’s the story then?

The FA’s document on the charge is quite lengthy, and you need to go right to the bottom to see what we’re talking about.

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In Appendix 1, section C, it is stated that the FA initially suggested a ten-game ban for the Spaniard due to the aggravating factors surrounding the incident, but in the end, he was only handed an eight-match suspension.

While this won’t have been in the FA’s mind when handing out the punishment, they may have just saved Leeds £5m.

£5m saved

Now that Casilla is banned, Illan Meslier will get his chance to fill in as United’s number one.

The Frenchman is only at Leeds on loan, but that deal has an interesting clause attached to it in that if he plays in more than ten games for the Whites their option to buy him becomes an obligation, and the reported fee attached to that is £5m.

The fact that Casilla is only banned for eight outings means the Frenchman won’t be at the top of the pecking order for ten, ensuring this clause doesn’t have to be triggered if Leeds don’t want it to be.

Of course, United could choose to keep him between the sticks until the end of the season, triggering that clause themselves, but at least the choice is in their hands at the moment, whereas if Casilla was handed the harsher sanction they would have been forced into splashing out on Meslier.

In other news, Patrick Bamford needs to up his game as he’s being outshined by this 21 y/o.