Winter claimed this was another example of Fergie trying to "de-select" a referee, knowing the authorities would be reluctant to give more United matches to officials he criticised.

His own final game before retirement was to take charge of the 2005 FA Cup final between Manchester United and Millwall.

But there was a time when he knew [size=large]United were "off limits".[/size]

He explained: "Very early in my Premier League career I sent Roy Keane off and incurred Fergie's wrath for doing so.

"In the course of the next two seasons I did not get a single Manchester United game, even though I refereed every other Premier League club at least five or six times. I was not afraid to stand up to him and I think he knew that.

"With his latest remarks, Fergie has probably de-selected Martin Atkinson for the potential title decider with Arsenal."

How the hell can refereeing Man United fairly and equally be "off limits"? It's absolutely outrageous.

Astonishing stuff form Jeff Winter, but, you could go back and trace the same story with other referees down the years - Man United have basically got themselves referees who make favourable decisions, year after year, for twenty years - which is cheating, pure and simple. The Italians had to pay good money for exactly the same treatment, which leads me to my next point; does an appearance record like Winter's (vs ManU), really only happen through Fergie's outburst and the FA running scared? Or does it run deeper than that? That's the question for me.

It's a total and utter disgrace either way, frankly, but obviously more serious if it's down to more than just the FA being complete cowards.

The bias was never all in our heads, as I'm sure each and everyone of us have been told at different times over the last 10 years. There really is one rule for Manchester United, and another rule for everyone else. Disgusting.

So this is proof then that United get bias.

Btw the cup final between United and Millwall was in 2004.

Fergie's rants won't affect the referee for the title decider at all.

Howard Webb will have been preparing for his moment all season long.

I may be wrong here, but I think that was Asa´s point.

That referees have been partial towards Man Utd has been evident for a long time.

What i don't completely comprehend is why though? Why should the FA be scared of Fergusson?

How and why does this work? It isn't as if clubs dole out any financial support to the FA do they?

Do you have a link to the full article, Rick?

You need to compare that to say Mourinho's record with referees after some of his outbursts. The FA may just not like putting referees in games with managers or players they know disrespect them.

wenger needs to be more disrespectful of the refs then. it's not like any of them are any good and therefore deserving of respect, anyway.

Rohit wrote:

What i don't completely comprehend is why though? Why should the FA be scared of Fergusson?

Ferguson is an expert at building alliances with other league managers - far more so than Wenger. He has a constituency among them.

Anything Ferguson says about how the sport is run or the matches are officiated is instantly outside cover news.

So of course he has massive clout. That's not to say he can issue direct orders, but if he wanted to end the career of any specific mid-level FA representative or official, all he would really need would be a pretext.

Wenger should invite refs to his house or have drinks with them after the match. Learn from Fergie

I don't remember the details, though a fellow on another forum told a story about how his father and himself attended a fund raising dinner who's guest speaker was a retired official.
Said official candidly told the pair of them that while he was reffing, ManU were definitely not to be trifled with by refs and that the FA and top refs agreed to turn a blind eye to several England internationals behaviour on the pitch.

That latter point about English internationals was confirmed by Graham Poll last year in one of his columns.

We get fucked domestically and fucked in Europe.

we are politically clueless. maybe we do need someone like david dein back. obviously not going to happen while fiszman and usmanov are around, though.

exactly. we need to build our relationships with others better. although football shouldnt be this way but we cant constantly keep getting haters to fuck us around

Just wistfully remembering the days when Dein was vice-chairman of the FA and people like Mourinho used to jump up and down whinging about it and claiming we rigged the league.

Instead of the other way around.

Pretty sure that was Fergie. Mourinho won the league the first time of asking.

I think it was both at various times. Mourinho certainly complained ....

Yep here we go, here he is in 2005:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/c/chelsea/4675879.stm

And Ferguson:

http://menmedia.co.uk/manchestereveningnews/sport/football/manchester_united/s/214840_gill_in_as_fa_oust_dein

Ferguson first questioned the propriety of Dein having such key posts at Highbury and in the FA in 2001, when misconduct charges against Thierry Henry and Patrick Vieira were delayed, at the height of the title race between United and Arsenal.

Ferguson wanted to know why that had happened, and quipped: "If we win the title, we will have done it the right way."

In October 2003, he accused Arsenal of "using their position in the game" to strike a deal with the FA over disciplinary charges to six of their players following the "Battle of Old Trafford" sparked by Vieira's red card for a lunge at Ruud van Nistelrooy.

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