Fergie blasts 'dysfunctional' FA over failure to ban Gerrard
Published 23:00 19/03/10 By David McDonnell
Sir Alex Ferguson has accused the FA of being "dysfunctional" and biased against Manchester United.
Fergie was furious Anfield skipper Steven Gerrard was not punished for elbowing Portsmouth's Michael Brown and said if he had been a United player he would have been charged.
United take on arch rivals Liverpool at Old Trafford tomorrow in a crucial Premier League showdown for which Fergie clearly feels Gerrard should be suspended.
After Gerrard got off, Ferguson said: "I didn't expect Gerrard to be charged. Simply because it's a dysfunctional unit at the FA.
"I don't think they know what they are doing. There's no consistency for a start, so you don't expect any consistency.
"But I'm not bothered, they can do what they want down there - it's crazy times down there.
"I certainly think if it was a Manchester United player he would have been done, as was the case with Rio Ferdinand."
Ferdinand was banned for four matches for lashing out at Hull's Craig Fagan, after the FA took retrospective action when the referee admitted he had missed the incident.
Gerrard escaped punishment because ref Stuart Attwell said he had seen the elbow incident with Brown and was happy with the action he had taken.
But Ferguson was angry at the perceived inconsistency in the two cases and accused Liverpool of receiving preferential treatment.
"We know that," said Fergie. "They do alright. They're lucky like that. Maybe one day we'll get lucky.
"But you just scratch your head, everybody scratches their head at some of these decisions. It will always be that way.
"You just scratch your head at some of the decisions they take and wonder how they came to them."
The United boss advocated the use of former managers on a disciplinary panel to decide in such cases.
"There are about 20 redundant managers around who have had a good experience of the game, have good knowledge, have played the game. They could get involved.
"We could have maybe a body of professional people could make the decision and take it away from the referee."
