Page 144 - Alex Ferguson: My Autobiography

that, but he played in the game all the same. I called Suárez a ‘disgrace to Liverpool’ and said they
would be wise to ‘get rid’ of him. I also reprimanded Patrice for celebrating too close to Suárez as
the players walked off the pitch.
The whole saga had started at Anfield with Patrice sitting in the corner looking aggrieved. ‘What’s

happened?’ I asked.
‘He called me a black —,’ Patrice said.
I told him he would first have to report it to the referee. I went into the referee’s room with Patrice
and told the match official, ‘Look, Patrice Evra says he’s been racially abused.’
Phil Dowd, the fourth official, began writing everything down. The referee, Andre Marriner, told
me he thought something had happened, but had no idea what it might have been. Patrice said it
happened several times. Then they called in Kenny Dalglish. Later, when we were having a drink,

John Henry also came in. He was introduced to me but didn’t say much. Steve Clarke’s son was
pouring the drinks. One or two from the old school came in to join us.
But nothing more was said. Then it exploded in the papers. Later, Liverpool wore those T-shirts
supporting Suárez, which I thought was the most ridiculous thing for a club of Liverpool’s stature. I
felt we handled it well, mainly because we knew we were in the right. The FA asked us severaltime
not to discuss it, but Liverpool could not leave the subject alone. David Gill would not have allowed

any manager to handle it that way. Nor would Bobby Charlton. They are experienced people who
know about life. There seemed nobody at Liverpool willing to pull Kenny’s horns in.
Suárez came to the hearing and said he had called Evra ‘Negrito’. The specialist said yes, you can
call your friend Negrito, but you can’t call a stranger that, in an argument. Then it becomes racist.
I left Evra out of the Europa League game at Ajax five days after the non-handshake at Old Trafford
because it was a trying time for him and he needed a break. He’s a strong wee guy. I checked on his
state of mind regularly and he would say: ‘I’m fine, I have nothing to be ashamed of, I feel I’ve done

the right thing. It’s disgraceful what he said to me.’
He also said he was doing it purely for himself, on a point of principle, and was not trying to fight a
larger political battle on behalf of black players.
I think Kenny was falling back on the old chip on the shoulder. The problem, I felt, was that there
was no Peter Robinson at Anfield. Peter Robinson would never have allowed the Suárez situation to
be handled the way it was. The young directors there idolised Kenny and there was no one to say,

‘Hey, behave yourself, this is out of order, this is Liverpool Football Club.’ Equally, no one could
ever overstate Kenny’s dignified and statesmanlike handling of the Hillsborough tragedy, which
earned him a level of respect that no later political difficulty could nullify.
After the grandstand unveiling of the statue, another great honour was the FIFA Presidential Award
for 2011. At the ceremony I was sitting beside Pep Guardiola and right in front of Messi, Xavi and
Iniesta. The three musketeers. I felt privileged to be in that company. As I sat there on my own, the
three made their way towards me to shake my hand. Xavi said: ‘How’s Scholes?’ In his own victory

speech, Messi said his Ballon d’Or award should go to Xavi and Iniesta. ‘They made me,’ he said.
Messi is such a humble lad.
It was a really pleasurable night. Sepp Blatter, the FIFA president, had been very kind with his
words and there were video messages from Gordon Brown, Tony Blair, José Mourinho, Eric
Cantona, Ronaldo and David Beckham. The point of the award was to recognise my 25 years at
Manchester United. I said it was an honour in the ‘twilight of my life’. If you could have seen me at

the end of that season, you’d have thought I was right.
I didn’t use mind games with City because I felt we were in control. Patrick Vieira, however, did