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Ferguson hit with FA fine and ban

Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has received a two-match touchline ban for his comments about referee Alan Wiley's fitness.

The Football Association handed the 67-year-old a four-game ban, with two of those suspended until the end of the 2010-11 season.

Ferguson has also been fined £20,000 and warned about his future conduct.

He made disparaging remarks about Wiley's fitness after his side's 2-2 draw with Sunderland on 3 October.

Ferguson apologised to the official for any embarrassment caused and pleaded guilty to the FA's charge of improper conduct, but requested a personal hearing.

Peter Griffiths QC, chairman of the FA's four-man regulatory commission, said: "Each member of the commission recognised Sir Alex Ferguson's achievements and stature within the game.

"Having said that, it was made clear to Sir Alex that with such stature comes increased responsibilities.

"The commission considered his admitted remarks, in the context in which they were made, were not just improper but were grossly improper and wholly inappropriate. He should never have said what he did say."

The suspended sanction will be automatically activated should Ferguson be found guilty of a similar charge before the end of the 2010-11 season on top of any sanction imposed for that offence.

Referees' union Prospect had called for Ferguson to be banned from stadiums during his team's matches following his criticism of Wiley's fitness.

Ferguson launched into a furious attack on Wiley in the wake of his side's draw against Sunderland, fuming: "The pace of the game demanded a referee who was fit. He was not fit."

He later said he was sorry for any personal embarrassment caused to Wiley, claiming the comments were to highlight "what I believe to be a serious and important issue in the game".

But Alan Leighton, head of Prospect, felt Ferguson's apology had been "half-hearted".

He called on the Scot to receive an enhanced ban, as opposed to the standard touchline ban which allows managers to observe matches from the stands.

Leighton later told BBC Sport: "We think that the attack on Alan Wiley was an attack on his professionalism, struck at the heart of his professionalism and was totally unwarranted.

"Since then we believe he has broadened out that attack to talk about the fitness of other referees and hasn't retracted that main allegation that Alan was unfit.

"Some people suggest it is us picking on Sir Alex. I'm not interested in previous. If this had gone unchecked, other managers would have felt able to make similar slurs and that fundamentally brings the game into disrepute."

While managers are allowed to comment on an official's performance, the FA insists any remarks must not imply bias, question their integrity or engage in what could be construed as a personal attack.

Ferguson has a history of improper conduct charges for incidents involving referees.

In the 2007-08 season he was given a two-match touchline ban and fined £5,000 for a rant at referee Mark Clattenburg during a match at Bolton.

And during the last campaign he was banned for two games and fined £10,000 after remonstrating with referee Mike Dean after a match against Hull.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH POOR OLD FERGIE TWAT

In ten years time Alan Wiley will still be fit and able to referee at some level much further down the scale even though he'll be 77. Fergie will have drunk himself to death the fuckin pisshead. I am not a big Riley fan but anyone who can run around a football pitch for 90 minutes at 67 has some worth. Shut up Fergie you mug.

Everytime a result doesn't go their way, old redface has to have a whinge about the ref. Always blaming everyone but themselves. Stupid sour faced jock wanker.

ManU fans are exactly the same. Moan all the time when they lose and it's always about the ref, that bad tackle, it was never offside...etc. I do get great enjoyment when ManU get beat mind. When Curbs guided us to the double over'em, fuck me I got some milage out of that.

Man U fans are some of the worst I come across in football and definitely the worst out of the big 4 supporters IMO (which is no easy feat). So many of their fans are glory hunters, and nothing agitates me more than that. And to top it off most of them are pompous arrogant bastards. I can imagine it would have been an amazing feeling beating those pricks beggers, I was so gutted when Anton scored that own goal against them earlier this season. I'd love to beat the rags more than any other team (including Newcastle), we had to settle for 2nd best when we beat Liverpool with the help of the beach ball though :P

Just don't ask them where six minutes of injury time came from

When I lived in England there were loads of Man Utd fans around and they'd never even been to see them play. They used to give me stick when they beat us so I usually pulled out my matchday programme and just said "did you go?" That tended to shut them up. I gave them all stick for ages after we knocked them out of the FA Cup (Paolo Di Canio).