FA: Fergie only had to say sorry to avoid his five-match ban

Sir Alex Ferguson was last night accused of trying to undermine the FA’s Respect campaign.

The Manchester United boss was hit with a five-match touchline ban for his criticism of referee Martin Atkinson.

But Fergie could have avoided such a long ban had he retracted his comments and apologised to Atkinson. He was hit with the suspension after criticising Atkinson’s performance following United’s 2-1 defeat at Chelsea on March 1.

The full findings of the FA’s regulatory commission that banned Ferguson and fined him £30,000 have been released and were heavily critical of the United boss.

Barrister Craig Moore, who chaired the commission, said of the remarks: “[They] undermined the attempts by the association, through its Respect campaign, to encourage higher standards of behaviour within the game, including respect for officials.

“Whatever view one may take about the performance of Mr Atkinson or any other referee, respect for their integrity is essential for the integrity of the game.

“His vast experience ought to have left Sir Alex in no doubt as to how any sense of injustice he may have felt about the decisions, or the performance of an official, should properly be channeled and expressed.

“Although he denied any intention to question Mr Atkinson’s integrity, he should, at the very least, have realised the importance of what he said.

“Any credit to which Sir Alex may have been entitled by admitting the charge, and reduction in sanction, was lost.

“In addition, it follows from his denial of the charge that no clarification or retraction of any of his comments has been made and no apology given to Mr Atkinson, even after the charge had been brought.”

Ferguson had told MUTV: “When I saw who the referee was, I feared the worst.

“You want a fair referee or a strong referee anyway – and we didn’t get that.”