**David Attoub’s appeal against his 70-week ban for eye-gouging has been adjourned until Friday by an independent appeal committee in London.**The Stade Francais prop was suspended until April 22, 2011 after being found guilty of gouging Ulster’s Stephen Ferris during a Heineken Cup tie.
He has appealed against both the guilty verdict and length of the suspension.
The committee adjourned the hearing to consider submissions made on behalf of Attoub and European Rugby Cup Ltd.
Attoub, 28, was deemed to have gouged flanker Ferris in a Heineken Cup pool match played on 12 December last year.
When he delivered his verdict for organisers ERC, judicial officer Jeff Blackett said: "This is the worst act of contact with the eyes that I have had to deal with.
"It is a case of deliberate eye-gouging which caused significant distress and some injury to the victim.
“The sanction must be such to make other players stop and think before someone suffers a really serious eye injury.”
Stade’s president Max Guazzini accused Blackett of anti-French bias following the ruling, which is the second longest to have been handed out for a gouging offence in the professional era.
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Colomiers prop Richard Nones was given a two-year suspension in 1999 for gouging hooker Sven Cronk during a Heineken Cup match against Pontypridd.
Attoub’s team-mate Julien Dupuy is serving a 23-week suspension for another gouging offence in the same match as the Attoub incident.
Dupuy was originally handed a 24-week ban before Christmas - with Ferris again having been on the receiving end - but that suspension was reduced by seven days following an appeal in January.
Ferris told a January disciplinary hearing that the Attoub incident was “much worse that the contact made by Dupuy with his eyes just moments earlier”.
Attoub’s appeal committee is chaired by Professor Lorne Crerar (Scotland) and also comprises Rod McKenzie (Scotland) and Pat Barriscale (Ireland).
Stade finished top of Heineken Cup Pool 4, ahead of second-placed Ulster, and face Toulouse in the quarter-finals on 11 April.