Newcastle United's Jonjo Shelvey has taken a fresh dig at Wolverhampton Wanderers over an incident which resulted in him being found guilty of racial abuse by the Football Association last year.
The former Liverpool player was banned for five matches and fined £100,000 over comments that he made to Wolves' Romain Saiss during a Championship clash between the two sides last year.
Almost a year on from the controversy, Shelvey has denied abusing Saiss and downplayed the significance of the incident because the Midlands club are "still in the Championship".
Shelvey told the Daily Mail: "If I had said it then I would have deserved every punishment I got, but I didn't say it.
"When we went to the hearing, I had a top lawyer and before the verdict the FA lawyer even said to us 'you may as well get going because you have won this'.
"My lawyer tore the Wolves witnesses to pieces. Their stories didn't add up... and then the outcome was me being banned and a £100,000 fine.
"It is what it is. At the end of the day, they are still in the Championship and we are in the Premier League."
Dominic Iorfa, Matt Doherty and Cameron Borthwick-Jackson, who played for Wolves in the match, testified against Shelvey during his disciplinary hearing.
A report which came out of the hearing alleged that the Newcastle midfielder called Saiss an "Arab" or "Arabic" "****" and/or "p***k".
