THE Football Association has acted like Goons by imposing record fines and bans on Arsenal.

In a bid to toughen up their faded image, Mark Palios and the rest of the grey suits at Soho Square have gone well over the top.

Forget all these moralists who believe the crackdown was needed to clean up our tainted game. The FA has over-reacted.

Sure, crackdown on Rio Ferdinand, who failed to turn up for a drug test. Hammer Alan Smith for throwing a bottle at a young girl.

But to impose a total of nine one-match bans and £275,000 in fines is ridiculous for what amounted to 90 seconds of handbag swinging.

As a former footballer, Palios should know emotions run high on big occasions - and they don't come much bigger than Manchester United and Arsenal.

The punishment won't act as a deterrent. Given the same circumstances, the same players would probably act in the same way. It's emotion, it's instinctive - it's sport.

It happens every Sunday on every park pitch in the country.

The punishment never seems to fit the crime.

What happens when a footballer lunges two-footed at another player and breaks his leg. What's his punishment? An automatic three-game ban.

Does that really compare with Martin Keown doing an impression of a caveman, and giving Ruud van Nistelrooy a push on the shoulder. Hardly.

The crackdown is needed on the pitch -when careers are on the line.

A player who launches himself waist-high into an opponent should automatically face the FA -and I'm all in favour of lengthy bans.

But to sprinkle suspensions like confetti for what looked like the stage version of the Sound of Music is pathetic.

The FA has now set the precedent. I can't wait to see what it will do when there's a proper scrap.

We may never see Alan Smith again.