Fergie remarks "inappropriate" - FA

Updated 16.21 Fri Jun 13 2008

Keywords: Football Association, Manchester United, Sir Alex Ferguson

Sir Alex's Ferguson made "inappropriate" remarks about officials, the Football Association has said.

But British football's governing body will not challenge the decision by disciplinary chiefs to take no action against Sir Alex and Carlos Queiroz. The remarks by the Manchester United duo, who had been charged with improper conduct, were about referees chief Keith Hackett and match official Martin Atkinson.

"We remain firmly of the view that the comments made by Sir Alex Ferguson and Carlos Queiroz were inappropriate- " the Football Association

Sir Alex blasted Hackett after he felt his side had been denied a blatant penalty against Portsmouth when United crashed out of the FA Cup on March 8.

He said: "It's absolutely ridiculous. He (Hackett) is not doing his job properly and he needs to be assessed."

Queiroz had said Hackett was "a disgrace" and had deserved to be "given a red card".

Last month an independent regulatory commission found the charges not proven and the FA had until today to appeal but have decided not to do so.

An FA spokesman said: "After careful consideration, including external legal advice, we have decided that an appeal would be unlikely to succeed given the limited basis on which appeals are allowed. An appeal would therefore not be the right course of action.

"We remain surprised and disappointed at the original decision and we want to reiterate our support for Keith Hackett, Martin Atkinson and referees collectively.

"Keith Hackett has an important job to do in managing the select group of referees and we fully support his work. Martin Atkinson and the other select group referees also have our full backing for the excellent job they do.

"We remain firmly of the view that the comments made by Sir Alex Ferguson and Carlos Queiroz were inappropriate. We wish to discourage such comments being made as they are not in the best interests of football."

The reason for the FA's decision is that the only grounds for an appeal is for them to demonstrate that the original decision was one that "no reasonable body could have come to".