Filed under: Manchester United, Premier League, Football
Sir Alex Ferguson must have known he was about to be charged with improper conduct over his comments directed at referee Martin Atkinson in the match against Chelsea.About an hour before the official announcement from the Football Association came word from Manchester United that Ferguson had cancelled his pre-match press conference ahead of Sunday's match against Liverpool.
And not even an attempt from Old Trafford's PR machine to release the news - at around the same time as the FA's announcement - that midfielder Michael Carrick has signed a new three-year deal could disguise the fact that Ferguson is in hot water with the authorities once again.
The Scot has until 1600 GMT on March 8 to respond to the charge, which relates to comments made about Atkinson immediately after Tuesday's 2-1 defeat at Stamford Bridge.
"You want a fair referee, or a strong referee anyway - and we didn't get that," said Ferguson, who was angry at Atkinson over his failure to dismiss Chelsea goalscorer David Luiz for fouls on Javier Hernandez and Wayne Rooney after the Brazilian had been booked.
To compound that frustration, Atkinson then awarded Chelsea what Ferguson considered a "soft" penalty when Yuri Zhirkov fell under Chris Smalling's challenge.
"I must say, when I saw who the referee was I feared it. I feared the worst," added Ferguson.
Ferguson made his comments to United's in-house TV station MUTV and the FA asked for footage of the interview to check the context which he delivered the words before deciding there is sufficient evidence to charge him.
Yet the decision to charge Ferguson for his verbal attack on Atkinson just a few days after Rooney escaped punishment for his outrageous elbow on Wigan's James McCarthy shows how floored the FA's disciplinary system is.
Unlike Rooney, Ferguson has not been so lucky and unless he can persuade the FA of his innocence, he is facing a lengthy touchline suspension.
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Ferguson has two matches of a four-games ban still hanging over him following comments about Alan Wiley last season, when he suggested the referee was not fit enough for the job.
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