Part of the punishment meted out to Sir Alex Ferguson is suspended. This is supposed to act as an incentive for the Manchester United manager to clean up his act. But it has not worked before so why should it do so again? This is, after all, Ferguson’s third touchline ban.
Referees should be livid with the FA. Ferguson’s fine and ban is par for the course, an acceptance of the status quo: Ferguson insults a profession, is mildly punished and proceeds to insult it again.
There is a danger that referees will lose all dignity unless they fight back. Ferguson’s behaviour is unacceptable. This fact was acknowledged by the FA panel but the punishment did not reflect it.
Every amateur league in the land has difficulty finding referees for their fixtures. An added disincentive for becoming a football official exists in the form of Ferguson. He has single-handedly turned the refereeing profession into a laughing stock. In his publicly stated view, officials do not run fast enough, do not see clearly, do not stand in the right place, do not have enough experience and do not have the respect of the players.
And the refereeing profession soaks it up, relatively quietly, with only the insult that Alan Wiley was not fit enough prompting the referees’ union to retaliate.
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If Ferguson uttered what he says to Sky’s touchline reporters to the face of a referee down the local park, the official could just pick up the ball, walk off the pitch and state the match has been abandoned.
Top-flight referees do not tend to abandon matches because they are being jeered and if they did, there would never be a completed fixture list. But there is something unsettling about watching grown men smile weakly as their mental and physical abilities are questioned.
You can hear the fans sing, “You don’t know what you’re doing”, and such people are, curiously, given a lot of airtime on football phone-ins but the opinion of Ferguson matters. He is the maestro of the Barclays Premier League.
Again, the FA acknowledged Ferguson has a responsibility to behave better given his status but that status seems to hamper efforts to stop him being abusive. If referees want their dignity back, they should boycott Old Trafford — at least until the United manager is given the full four-match ban.