Sir Alex Not Guilty – The F.A. Fume at….the F.A.
The English F.A. are considering initiating an appeal in opposition to an independent commission’s verdict which exonerated Sir Alex Ferguson and Carlos Queiroz, Man Utd manager and assistant manager respectfully, of improper conduct. Now, nothing wrong with that, one may think, but here’s the catch – this so-called independent commission was appointed by….the F.A. themselves!
The United pair were initially charged regarding comments they made after their teams defeat in the F.A. Cup by Portsmouth back on March 8th. Ferguson was charged over derogatory comments made about the games referee Martin Atkinson and referees’ boss Keith Hackett (nothing new there then!) and Queiroz was charged for his comments about Atkinson. We think Queiroz was out to impress his boss by mimicking his actions – nothing like keeping the boss sweet, is there?
Anyway, the ‘independent’ commission established, after a five hour hearing, that the charges were ‘not proved’, infuriating the FA who have said that they have an option to appeal. Which ultimately, in the eyes of Joe Soap on the street, mean the F.A. yet again are going to squander time, money and credibility on fighting something which should have been a foregone conclusion in the first place. Or maybe it’s true what all ABU’s know – Man Utd are untouchable when it comes to F.A. punishments! By the way, the F.A. also denied any suggestion that a simple transcription error eventually led to the pair being found not guilty.
English football’s governing body will wait for the full judgement and ‘written confirmation and reasons’ prior to ‘considering’ what further action to take, but as they have already said unofficially that they are going to appeal, this statement was rather pointless; rather like most of the bigwigs at the F.A., come to think of it.
Just after the match, Fergie had fumed that the referee’s decisions were absolutely ridiculous and that a manager would have been sacked for making mistakes like that (Ronaldo not getting a penalty, et al). He also added that Keith Hackett was not doing his job properly and should himself be assessed as well as making sure that all referee performances are assessed properly, the same way managers and players are each time they make a mistake.
In concluding this piece, it would be very safe to assume that nothing more is going to be heard on the matter. Until next week…
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