Palace prepare to pay penalty

Crystal Palace are today set to be charged with mass confrontation and face a hefty fine from the Football Association after their players were involved in their third brawl of the season.

Trouble flared on Saturday in the 1-1 draw against Norwich with over 12 players involved in a brawl after Jamie Smith and Norwich's Darel Russell clashed. As a result, Palace's Jamie Pollock and Russell were sent off.

Palace were fined £20,000 for a similar incident during a league match with Nottingham Forest in August and are still waiting for a hearing date to explain another skirmish against Gillingham on Boxing Day.

The FA can order them to pay a penalty of up to £150,000 for the Gillingham brawl and have indicated Palace are also likely to be charged for the Norwich fracas.

Palace will have to come up with extremely good cases to avoid large fines for apparent breaches of the mass confrontation rule.

However, manager Alan Smith said: "We can put up a good case for the Gillingham incident and did not think what happened on Saturday was too bad.

"The FA will do whatever they think is right. Maybe I should be worried, but I am not."

Meanwhile, Palace today signed Jamaica striker Ricardo Fuller and USA defender Gregg Berhalter until the end of the season after they impressed on trial.

Fuller, 21, was close to finalising a deal with Charlton last season before suffering a back injury. He has already secured a work permit.

Berhalter, 27, who also had trials at Norwich and Everton and has dual nationality, was registered as a non-contract player and was a Palace substitute on Saturday.

Both were free agents and will be available for tonight's trip to Barnsley.