UEFA offer Fletcher hope

07 May 2009 07:31
UEFA general secretary David Taylor has revealed an avenue of appeal could be open to Manchester United over the red card which has dashed Darren Fletcher's Champions League final hopes. The Scotland international was dismissed late on in Tuesday's Champions League semi-final win over Arsenal for a professional foul on Cesc Fabregas. Replays showed Fletcher had in fact played the ball but UEFA confirmed yesterday that United do not have the right to appeal against the referee's decision. As things stand Fletcher will sit out the final against Barcelona in Rome later this month but Taylor has hinted at a reprieve for the combative midfielder. "I have spoken with Alex Ferguson personally on this - as fate would have it we shared a car after the match. We were rather thrown together but had an interesting discussion," Taylor told The Sun. "He was very fair about the referee and what had happened but equally he was very disappointed for Darren, as are we all. "I tried to give Alex as much advice as I could with regards the procedure in these circumstances. There is no formal process. But if the club want to write to us with information - such as video evidence - explaining why they think this is a harsh punishment then they can do that. "The likelihood is that we'd then refer the matter to our disciplinary body. They would then look to see if there were any special circumstances to justify any departure from established procedures. I must stress there is normally no way these matters can be overturned."

Source: Eurosport