Page 133 - Alex Ferguson: My Autobiography

weight. They all have lawyers. The union is very strong. Plus, young referees are not coming through,
so they cling to the ones they have.
Refereeing was the one area of the game where maybe I should have walked away from interviews
without expressing my opinions. The following week, I might be the beneficiary of a decision in our

favour; so to go overboard after one bad decision could be interpreted as selective outrage.
I support The Referees’ Association. At Aberdeen I would bring them into training to help them get
fit. I like standards. I like to see a fit referee. And I don’t think that levels of fitness are high enough
currently in the English game. How far they run is not the correct standard of measurement. It’s how
quickly they cover the ground. If there’s a counter-attack on, can they reach the right end of the pitch in
time? In fairness, if you look at our 2009 Champions League semi-final against Arsenal, when Rosetti
was the referee, he was still 20 yards behind the play when we put the ball in the net. It took us nine

seconds to score. So you’re asking the referee to run 100 yards in nine seconds. Only Usain Bolt
could manage that.
As a rule, I felt that the Football Association tend to go after the high-profile targets because they
know it will bring favourable publicity. If you look at the Wayne Rooney incident against West Ham,
when he swore into the camera, we felt they pressurised the referee, and Rooney ended up with a
three-match suspension. The justification was that it’s not nice for children to see a player swear into

a TV camera. I can see that, but how often have you seen players swear over the years?
It was never really possible to work out who was running English football’s governing body. You
would get Exeter schools having a say. Greg Dyke, the new chairman, has to reduce the numbers
involved in decision-making. A committee of 100 people can’t produce sensible management. These
committees are set up to honour people’s ‘contribution to the game’ rather than make the organisation
run smoothly. It’s an institutional problem. Reformers go in there 6 feet 2 inches tall and come out 5
feet 4 inches.

Our behaviour in big games was generally excellent. One newspaper cited the case of the referee
Andy D’Urso being harassed by Roy Keane and Jaap Stam, which we stamped on. Me saying, ‘It’s
none of their business,’ evidently irked the FA. I also pointed out that this was the League Cup, not the
FA Cup. I was never much impressed with the work of the FA’s compliance unit.
When I criticised Alan Wiley for his physique in the autumn of 2009, I was making a wider point
about the fitness of referees. In my opinion Alan Wiley was overweight when I made that point after a

2–2 draw with Sunderland at Old Trafford. The comment that landed me in hot water was: ‘The pace
of the game demanded a referee who was fit. He was not fit. You see referees abroad who are as fit
as butchers’ dogs. He was taking thirty seconds to book a player. He was needing a rest. It was
ridiculous.’
Later I apologised for any personal embarrassment caused to Alan Wiley and said my intention had
been to ‘highlight a serious and important issue in the game’. But, 16 days after the Sunderland game,
I was charged by the FA with improper conduct. I had twice been banned from the touchline, in 2003,

and again in 2007 for having my say about referee Mark Clattenburg. Later I was fined £30,000 and
banned from the touchline for five matches for my comments about referee Martin Atkinson in the
wake of our 2–1 defeat at Chelsea. After my comments about Alan Wiley, former referee Jeff Winter
suggested a ‘FIFA-style stadium ban’ might be appropriate.
By the end, I felt we hadn’t had a really top Premier League referee for a long time. I know Graham
Poll had that arrogant streak, but he was the best decision-maker. He had such an ego that it detracted

from his performances, and when he entered one of his stroppy moods he could be difficult for you.
He was the best judge of an incident over my time at Manchester United.