Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson cancelled his customary pre-game news conference yesterday while he considered whether to appeal against a Football Association charge of improper conduct.
Ferguson was charged on Thursday over comments he made about referee Martin Atkinson after Tuesday’s 2-1 defeat at Chelsea in which he said he had “feared the worst” when he had seen who was officiating the match.
The manager’s news conference yesterday, where he was expected to talk about tomorrow’s Premier League match against Liverpool, was cancelled and local media reported he was not even speaking to the club’s in-house television channel MUTV.
Some of the comments that have got him into trouble with the FA were made to, and broadcast by, MUTV, which is where Ferguson usually speaks when he has decided not to give news conferences in the past.
PENALTY
Ferguson criticized Atkinson after Chelsea came from behind to win with a Frank Lampard penalty awarded after Chris Smalling was ruled to have tripped Yuri Zhirkov.
The Scot was also angry that Chelsea’s Brazilian defender David Luiz, who had equalized, escaped a red card for a second-half challenge on Wayne Rooney.
“It was a major game for both clubs and you want a fair referee,” Ferguson said. “You want a strong referee anyway and we didn’t get that.”
Ferguson has until Tuesday to respond to the charge which comes after a defeat that has thrown the title race wide open just as United had started to look like they were heading comfortably towards a record 19th championship.
GAME IN HAND
With 60 points, they have a four-point lead over second-placed Arsenal but Arsene Wenger’s side have a game in hand.
By the time Ferguson’s team kick off at Anfield tomorrow, against the rivals who will be hoping to derail United’s bid to beat the championship record they currently share, their lead could have been cut to one point as Arsenal play Sunderland today.
By the time United play their next match after that, it could be without Ferguson in the dugout as the manager has a suspended two-match ban hanging over him from a previous punishment which could kick in on top of any new penalty.
RECORD DEFEAT: The Shanghai-based ‘Oriental Sports Daily’ said the drubbing was so disastrous, and taste so bitter, that all that is left is ‘numbness’ Chinese soccer fans and media rounded on the national team yesterday after they experienced fresh humiliation in a 7-0 thrashing to rivals Japan in their opening Group C match in the third phase of Asian qualifying for the 2026 World Cup. The humiliation in Saitama on Thursday against Asia’s top-ranked team was China’s worst defeat in World Cup qualifying and only a goal short of their record 8-0 loss to Brazil in 2012. Chinese President Xi Jinping once said he wanted China to host and even win the World Cup one day, but that ambition looked further away than ever after a
‘KHELIFMANIA’: In the weeks since the Algerian boxer won gold in Paris, national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women In the weeks since Algeria’s Imane Khelif won an Olympic gold medal in women’s boxing, athletes and coaches in the North African nation say national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women. Khelif’s image is practically everywhere, featured in advertisements at airports, on highway billboards and in boxing gyms. The 25-year-old welterweight’s success in Paris has vaulted her to national hero status, especially after Algerians rallied behind her in the face of uninformed speculation about her gender and eligibility to compete. Amateur boxer Zougar Amina, a medical student who has been practicing for a year, called Khelif an
Crowds descended on the home of 17-year-old Chinese diver Quan Hongchan after she won two golds at the Paris Olympics while gymnast Zhang Boheng hid in a Beijing airport toilet to escape overzealous throngs of fans. They are just two recent examples of what state media are calling “toxic fandom” and Chinese authorities have vowed to crack down on it. Some of the adulation toward China’s sports stars has been more sinister — fans obsessing over athletes’ personal lives, cyberbullying opponents or slamming supposedly crooked judges. Experts say it mirrors the kind of behavior once reserved for entertainment celebrities before
GOING GLOBAL: The regular season fixture is part of the football league’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the sport to international destinations The US National Football League (NFL) breaks new ground in its global expansion strategy tomorrow when the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers face off in the first-ever grid-iron game staged in Brazil. For one night only, the land of Pele and ‘The Beautiful Game’ will get a rare glimpse into the bone-crunching world of American football as the Packers and Eagles collide at Sao Paulo’s Neo Quimica Arena, the 46,000-seat home of soccer club Corinthians. The regular season fixture is part of the NFL’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the US’ most popular sport to new territories following previous international fixtures
RSS