Sir Alex Faces Ban As FA Request Film Of Ref Criticism

Chris Wright

3rd, March 2011

15 Comments

By Chris Wright

“I saw chalk! CHALK FLEW UP!”

Sir Alex Ferguson is staring down the barrel of an automatic two-match ban after the FA requested a copy of his post-Chelsea interview with MUTV in which the Manchester United manager openly criticised referee Martin Atkinson.

After just about keeping the barracking in check on Sky Sports directly after the game, Ferguson later questioned the referee’s integrity – implying to United’s in-house station that he feared Atkinson wasn’t ‘fair or strong enough’ to take charge of the game and that he ‘feared the worst’ when he learned Atkinson was due to officiate at Stamford Bridge.

MUTV are under no obligation to hand over a copy of the tape to the FA, though the disciplinary committee have stated that it would be in United’s interest to allow Ferguson to bring his comments into some sort of context – though, by releasing the tapes, United will bring about the prospect of Sir Alex being shopped by his own club.

Whereas I’m firmly in favour of officials being made liable and thus being exposed to the same levels of objective criticism that is levelled at players and managers week-on-week, for Ferguson (or anyone else for that matter) to bring a poor decision into question is one thing, but to accuse a referee of not being ‘fair’ is an entirely different, impartiality-undermining basket of apples and it just ain’t cool…man.

With that quandary in mind, the FA have until 4pm on Friday to either hit Ferguson with an ‘improper conduct’ charge or forever hold their peace.

Posted in Man Utd

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15 Comments

  1. AussieSAm says:

    Going on the rooney incident, i dont think anything will happen, its Man U, you relly think the FA will do anything??

  2. AussieVillan says:

    they just MIGHT do something because it is Man U, depends if the FA want to get a point across

  3. says:

    Might as well have said “We’re still in first place, this is an outrage!”

  4. Chris Nicholls says:

    Ferguson claimed what is widely known. Atkinson is a cheat, anti- Ferguson and against Man Utd. Even Chelsea players are now saying that the penalty was never a penalty and should not have been given. The FA should put its own house in order before they contemplate in charging anyone for telling the truth.

  5. Calski says:

    Whatever The FA give Fergie, it’s going to be considerably less than what they’d give to someone like Ian Holloway.

  6. Ref is a joke as same as FA.

    When they want publicity they use Man United.

    Nothing less Media selling more paper by using Man United..

    Those shameless two-faced idiots are feeding on Manchester United..

    That’s a Fact!

  7. Pedro says:

    17 matches, 16 wins, 1 draw, 40 for, 3 against. The statistical likelihood of a team having this sort of record under any referee is so low it’s a joke. Sure, low probability events do happen, people do win the lottery, but this is just a bit too unsavoury for my liking.

  8. K P V says:

    The FA should turn the results around and give the victory to man u , thats whats right. in fact, they should just abolish the FA all together and just make man utd champions of the world, for life, thats how good man utd is

    http://www.twitter.com/andrewabrahim

    follow me on twitter @andrewabrahim yall

  9. torressi says:

    fergie, you really an idiot! if i am the refree in charge, i will put a plaster to cover his stint mouth! well done fergie, you are the bad of the bad mouth of the century!

  10. shay says:

    The comments about him being worried when he saw who the ref was could certainly be taken in the context of being worried due to the mistakes Atkinson made last season when Chelsea played at Old Trafford rather than calling him biased. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

  11. Grant says:

    The bottom line is that Chelsea shouldn’t have had to score two goals to win because Wayne Rooney should never have been on the pitch. If Sir Alex was an honest man with decent character he would bench Rooney for the three games he would have been banned for. Rooney’s a thug, and they both are bullies.

  12. Mr.Angry says:

    ban that angry old cunt for life! always ranting and raving like a fucking lunatic!

  13. Chris says:

    Ah, more hypocrisy – is anyone surprised? How can he piss and moan about Martin Atkinson having something against United when only back in November the same ref doled out two reds, two yellows, and 16 fouls to Wigan and a scant bit of nothing to Man Utd.? Everyone has selective memories – they always seem to clutch onto when they were “hard done by” and conveniently forget when judgement was “fair”.

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