HOW MANY MORE TIMES?......

.....do we have to put up with the crass ineptitude of the Football Association?

It`s reported today that `Sir` Alex Ferguson, the Manchester United manager, will not be charged by the FA for suggesting that referee Howard Webb `favoured` Arsenal in last week`s 2-2 draw between the two teams.

Disciplinary chiefs at the FA have been studying Ferguson`s remarks after calling for a transcript of the interview that appeared on United`s in-house TV station MUTV. But it appears that FA officials decided that there was not enough evidence to charge Ferguson as it could not be proved that he was suggesting that the referee was deliberately biased towards Arsenal. I wonder what Howard Webb makes of that.

I suggest it is yet another example of the FA`s reluctance to take any sort of action against this dinosaur manager, for fear of reprisals from Manchester United. Time and again, Ferguson is allowed to get away with behaviour which would not be out of place in a Govan shipyard. He seems to have opinions about anything, everything and anyone connected with the football world, all delivered in a barely intelligible caledonian mutter; perhaps the most amusing being his recent criticism of Avram Grant, Glenn Roeder and Gareth Southgate for not having the necessary EUFA coaching qualification to manage in the Premiership. This from a man who himself has no such qualification.

I look forward to the day when Ferguson retires and then perhaps we can have BBC interviews with a United manager, since Ferguson has constantly flaunted yet more FA regulations by refusing interviews since the BBC exposed the antics of Feguson`s then agent son. Football teams are a reflection of their managers and, in this case, it is small wonder that the rest of the football world look upon Manchester United as arrogant, contemptuous and a law unto themselves. It seems that Ferguson and Manchester United think they can run English football....and the FA do little to suggest otherwise.