Fergie dismisses ref claims
16 May 2008 - 07:40:05
Sir Alex Ferguson has dismissed claims from Chelsea manager Avram Grant that English referees favour his Manchester United side.
Speaking ahead of Wednesday's Champions League Final meeting of the two sides in Moscow, Grant revealed he was happy that an English referee would not be in charge.
The Israeli cited the example of John Obi Mikel's red card in a 2-0 defeat to United in September and the failure to show Paul Scholes a second yellow in last weekend's title decider at Wigan Athletic as examples of favouritism towards the Old Trafford club.
"I do not think the world is against Chelsea, or English football, but in this case there were some coincidences for Manchester United," he said.
However, Ferguson has dismissed the claims of his counterpart by saying: "I don't think it's about last Saturday, I think it's about next Wednesday, maybe even next season.
"I could have gone on and on and on with decisions because they're all debatable at the end of the day. We feel we didn't get a lot of decisions this season.
"Maybe when we went to Chelsea we should have been champions before that, but now the season's over we'll put it to the back burner.
"But this is about next Wednesday and that's why Avram is talking that way."