THE Football Association have written to Sir Alex Ferguson asking him to explain his stunning outburst over referee Alan Wiley on Saturday.
The United manager, who has seven days to respond, was furious that not enough injury time had been added in the 2-2 Premier League draw with Sunderland at Old Trafford and blasted the official, saying he "wasn't fit enough for a match of that standard."
While the FA have halted bosses speaking about officials before matches, managers are free to discuss the refs and their performances, as long as it is in the context of the game.
They must not, however, imply bias, question their integrity or comment on anything of a personal nature.
Premier League officials, battling to implement the Respect programme, can barely believe the personal attack on Wiley, who has to take and pass the FIFA fitness test and has his heart rate monitored together with his movement in ever game analysed.
At the beginning of every season all top pro refs and others on the national list have to complete six 40m sprints each in 6.2 seconds as well as run ten 400m laps during which they have to twice sprint 150m in 30 seconds.
Retired ref Jeff Winter told M.E.N. Sport: "It was an absolutely incredible accusation to make. It was unfounded and insulting.
"Alex Ferguson is famous for his mind games but what was the point of this? Why can't he just accept that on this occasion his team didn't perform as well?
"Alan Wiley, under the rules top refs work under, cannot defend himself and Alex Ferguson knows that so in that respect he is attacking a soft target."
Fergie isn't alone in his criticism of refs. Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez is currently on an FA improper conduct charge for criticising Phil Dowd at Spurs in August.
And yesterday Sam Allardyce called for ref Peter Walton to be sacked for not awarding what he thought was a penalty as Blackburn were hammered 6-2 at Arsenal.
What do you think? Have your say.
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I amso looked at the ref and thought , wow he looks out of shape ! no offence to alan wiley but thats the truth , so i dont think =SAf was too way out this time !!
maybe he should have said it another way or made a complaint in writing to the FA !!
It'll be justified if he does get a charge.
When the FA receive the referee's report,it should include an additional report on the behaviour of Sir Alex towards the 4th official.
I have never in all the 50 years of watching Football ever seen an FA official subjected to such an abusive attack by a Manager of a football team.
Wiley was under pressure not to give a clear penalty (hand ball think it was Reid) and not to allow United to score a late winner following the derby where, despite both teams being allowed to score in added on time and City were in the ascendancy, he was pilloried for adding on what the BBC proved was 1 second over the calculated injury/substitutuion/goal celebration time.
He is not unfit and Fergie was out of order he was simply making sure that the old expression that 'these things even themselves up over the season' is actually very true.
We were poor. We played virtually 4-2-4 when 4-4-2 is our preferrred formation and surrendered the midfield against a very hardworking Sunderland. Foster and Vidic lack confidence. Danny Wellbeck was like a fish out of water and even Rooney's touch was off.
Wrong team selection and wrong tactics. Not fat ref.
Wiley not to referee a game of that standard????
SA Should be looking at the fitness and standard of his players as they were off the pace to create any sort of standard...
Sunderland were by far the better side overall and showed the way to play at OT against a side that relies on reputation and intimidation towards officials to get results!!!!!!!!!
January cant come soon enought for SA to dig deep into those funds from Ronaldo.....
I don't think any United fan can seriously blame the referee for costing us the three points on Saturday. I thought that the basic passing game in the middle of the park was very poor and that Ben Foster should be held accountable for yet another poor performance. His position for the first goal was not the best but credit where credit is due, Bent took it well. For the second goal he could have easily put his fist through it and we would have been still in the game. I know SAF doesn't normally like to criticise his players in public and long may that continue, but there is still no need to deflect criticism on to the referee. I didn't think there was much he did wrong, there could have been a penalty for the hand ball by Reid but apart from that, I thought there were many players who didn't turn up. Scholes, Fletch (both couldn't string a pass together), FOSTER (couldn't unlike me, catch a cold this weekend), Nani (waster). Above all I thought Rooney was shocking and I am hoping he doesn't fall into the same patterns where he scores a few in a row and then nothing for a string of games.
Berbatov and O'Shea for me played well though, but above all, forget the refs and focus on getting back to winning ways for the Bolton game coming up.
Old Trafford expects better SAF.
Alan Willey needs to have a thick skin and ignore it.
I'm sure it wasn't intended to be personal and show disrespect to the official.
He was best mates with SAF a couple of weeks ago in the derby match additional time.
His arrogance is getting worse...........
Did Fergie honestly think Alan Wily's performance was lazier than that of his team? Awful! At his age he should be much smarter, and not push the blame to someone else. He must realise that sticking with a GK who cannot make England's squad (never mind persistent blunders) is a sure recipe for disaster. This GK's performance is terribly knocking confidence off our back 4. And the result - THINGS FALL APART.
Zzzzzz. United played crap, so Ferguson invents some utterly preposterous baloney about the referee to deflect attention away from the performance. What a surprise!
S.A.F. is a genius how can you punish someone for telling the truth ?.The game is about passion the will to win every game never lose it Fergie.
hope it's not like the anfield rap.
aaahhhh didums, doesn't like it went he doesn't win.
Alan Wiley is out of shape so SAF got that right. The only thing is I dont agree with him deflecting the blame on him when it was one of the worst performances i can remember in a long time. The blame lies with the entire side and not the ref this time. Whilst we are on the subject of poor performances, Foster was poor again but that is more than likely down to confidence, he has got the ability though. But how many more shockers is SAF going to put up with from Nani? he just isnt improving and he certainly isnt fit to be named ronnies replacement at this moment in time. His final ball is shocking the majority of the time and his constant falling over when he doesnt need to is so frustrating. I hear people say that ronnie was like that when he first arrived but Ronnie was 18 and even then he was capable of producing magic moments as well as frustrating moments, Nani is older, he should be producing by now, its no wonder he isnt always an automatic choice. I hope the gaffer read the riot act to the entire side and we get a response, because as well as sunderland played, we shouldnt be dropping 2 points at home to that kind of midtable side.
dennis d, Moston.....
5/10/2009 at 11:26
"His arrogance is getting worse..........."
Yes...........that Alan Wiley's a one isn't he?
He's guilty and he'll get off... next topic please
Quasimodo's Leotard, Paris
5/10/2009 at 11:09
Like you he must have got the hump!!
I love these old referees coming out of the woodwork from time to time. Jeff Winter and Graham Poll were both useless referees but are more than happy to share their pearls of wisdom when a bit of money is dangled in front of them. The standard of refereeing in our game is terrible. End of. Having said that, I don't think Wiley made too many errors.
Come on Fergie, I sat through that match on saturday, it was painful especially the first half. It was nothing to do with the ref. Concentrate on United and stop getting involved in petty quarrels.
"He's guilty and he'll get off... next topic please
Whaley Bridge cynic.,
5/10/2009 at 12:32"
Just like Mark Hughes' comments after losing the derby eh?
I'm United through & through, but Alex Ferguson deserves what he gets from the FA.
United peformed (if that is the right choice of word!) well below the high standards they set themselves, while Sunderland out-fought & out-thought United for large periods of the game.
Ferguson publicly berating & humiliating referees who often have a hard enough job with the abuse they receive from players and fans, without well-respected managers making distasteful remarks in a pathetic attempt to deflect attention away from a team who simply didn't perform.
I am a loyal United fan, but I'm deeply disappointed with Fergusons' comments about the referee after the match.
I also thought Sunderland constributed fantastically well to the match. They didn't come to defend and contain, they pressed the ball all over the pitch, stopped United playing, then played some excellent football themselves.
I have to admit to growing inclreasingly frustrated with the mud top 4 managers seem to feel conmfortable flinging at referees when their team fail to perform, or are matched by a so-called 'smaller team'. It seems to imply a belief the opposition turn up to be beaten and they have a god given right to 3 points every time the referee blows the final whistle.
SAF's dig wasn't at whether he was fit or not. Wiley blew the whistle at exactly 4 minutes. However time should have been added on for the goal. No referee would have given us another 30 seconds cos we looked like we were going to score again. So SAF needed to point this out but not by blatantly talking about it, but rather chuck it in a rant about something else.
SAF is the king of mind games.
Mancun IAN the blue, Levenshulme, Manchester
5/10/2009 at 12:20
"aaahhhh didums, doesn't like it went he doesn't win"
Yes.....damn him for having a winning mentality. Hope dare he act like a baby all the time, whilst winning everything in sight. How dare he help other managers out and charities without seeking any publicity whatsoever for it.
What a complete baby!!
I'm going to fill my nappy in protest..uhhh..uhhhh..UHHHHHHHHHH..THERE!!!!
So Fergie will be in America this week, maybe he will learn politeness and respect from the Yanks. Silly me, I thought Alan Wiley was his best mate!
I agreenUNITED were so poor , but i did think the ref looked slow and out of breath and yes SAF was out of line but then all managers complain to the fourth official , dont they ?