Sir Alex Ferguson was fined £30,000 and given a five match touchline ban for comments he made about referee Martin Atkinson. Ferguson called for a “fair referee” following the 2-1 defeat by Chelsea on March 1.
Sir Alex Ferguson has a disciplinary advisor in the shape of Graham Bean; Mr Bean is a former FA compliance officer. The suggestion from Graham Bean is the FA has taken a tough line on Manchester United, because of their reputation as the most powerful club in England.
Bean also advises other Premier League football clubs including Liverpool. He suggests that Ferguson has been harshly punished, while other similar offences from Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp and Wigan’s Roberto Martinez have been overlooked.
Bean told Telegraph Sport “Where it goes seriously wrong for the FA is that there have been cases of managers in the Premier League making comments which have been a clear implication of bias against the referee, or questioning the referee, yet virtually nothing has been done. The FA has serious questions to answer in terms of why they have not taken action against other individuals. There are two cases which we referred to in Ferguson’s defence against the Atkinson charge.
“Firstly, Roberto Martínez — three days before Ferguson made his comments at Chelsea — claimed after Wayne Rooney had clashed with James McCarthy that one of his players ‘would have been lucky to stay on the pitch’ had he committed the foul. That was a clear allegation of bias towards Manchester United, but the FA did nothing about it.
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“Harry Redknapp, making comments about the referee and assistant after Nani scored a controversial goal at Old Trafford against Spurs earlier this season, said, ‘They [officials] will go in and come up with a story that will make it all look right, that’s what happens’.
“That was clearly worse, one of the major comments of the season, yet the FA did absolutely nothing about it other than send him a letter. That comment in itself suggested collusion between the match officials. The FA says it treats each case on its merits, but in effect they have bottled it on many occasions in terms of dealing with post-match comments by managers. That’s because they move the goalposts to suit themselves.”
In response, an FA spokesman said: “Consideration is given to any comments reported to us and all comments are reviewed in their entirety, taking into account the full context in which they were delivered.”
Ferguson imposed a nine-day media blackout following the charge, but Bean insists the reason for this was the belief by Ferguson that the media are the driving force behind the FA’s disciplinary process.
Ferguson does have previous problems regarding referees after a charge in October 2009. In that case he labelled Alan Wiley as “unfit” to referee, he was suspended for two games, with a further two suspended (now activated due to the Atkinson charge). The FA warned Ferguson that his increased profile bought with it increased responsibility (a bit like that great Spiderman line on a similar vein).
Bean argues that Ferguson and United shouldn’t be judged based on their profile. “The FA reacts to media pressure and Alex believes that,”
Bean said. “In all of his disciplinary issues we have made a point of noting that the media coverage of Manchester United is out of comparison to every other club in the country — it’s twentyfold bigger and that causes problems in itself. They are being punished because of their profile and not because of what they have done. In the Atkinson case, the penalty did not fit the crime. While the FA might say that Sir Alex or the club should know better, that’s not the way it should be.”
The Verdict
Does the aforementioned Mr Bean have a point? Rules are rules and no manager should break them – but surely when the rules are broken all managers/clubs should be treated in the same way. Bean may have a point but the FA is hardly likely to back down or admit they got it wrong, are they?
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