Sir Alex Furious With Ref Decisions

Sir Alex Ferguson was left stunned by referee Martin Atkinson’s failure to award a seventh-minute penalty, and says the system for assessing referees needs to be overhauled.

Cristiano Ronaldo was clearly fouled by Sylvain Distin, but the referee waved play on. He later sent of Tomasz Kuszczak when arguably he shouldn’t have, because Anderson and Wayne Rooney were covering when the Polish stopper felled Milan Baros.

United’s frustrations are heightened with a glut of missed chances throughout the match. But there was one theme dominating Sir Alex’s thoughts post-match.

“We’re out and you could look at a lot of things,” he told MUTV. “We missed a lot of chances for one, but the refereeing performance… Keith Hackett (general manager of the Professional Game Match Officials Board) has got a lot to answer for in this country. He’s not doing his job properly.

“He should be assessed like everyone else is assessed. I’m assessed as a manager, the players are assessed, referees are assessed. Martin Atkinson will referee next week, no problem. But his performance today should not be accepted in our game.

“I agree with Sepp Blatter, the standards in our game as opposed to the Continent, the tolerance level, is behind Europe. I think it’s a big problem.”

Of the decision not to award a penalty for Distin’s challenge on Ronaldo, Sir Alex added: “It’s absolutely ridiculous. I cannot explain it. I just cannot explain that decision. Manager’s get sacked on the basis of things like that. And he’s going to referee a game next week? It’s ridiculous. There is no answer.”