The Football Association is looking into remarks made by Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson about referees' chief Keith Hackett.

Ferguson claimed Hackett told referee Mark Halsey to rescind the red card given to Chelsea captain John Terry against Manchester City.

The United manager said Hackett "would never have done this for us".

Terry was exonerated on Tuesday and the referees' body said: "All matters of discipline are an issue for the FA."

Terry had been facing a three-match ban after Halsey deemed the tackle on City striker Jo was "serious foul play".

But the FA's Independent Regulatory Commission upheld Chelsea's appeal, meaning the England skipper is free to face United in Sunday's Premier League clash.

That decision clearly riled Ferguson, who will be without Nemanja Vidic for the same game after the Serbian defender was sent off against Liverpool on Saturday.

"My information is that Hackett told Halsey to rescind the red card and he would not do it," said Ferguson.

"If it had been a Manchester United player Hackett would never have done this for us."

Halsey has been removed from the list of Premier League referees for this weekend and will instead take charge of the League Two encounter between Chester and Shrewsbury.

If the FA decides to investigate Ferguson's remarks further, it will write to the United manager asking him to explain them.

BBC Radio 5 Live sports news correspondent Gordon Farquhar explained: "There is a fairly high threshold for what constitutes opinion and debate about football and for an offence to be triggered it would have to be reasonably serious.

"The FA would see an accusation of bias like this as being something which required further investigation.

"The process would now be for the FA to write to the person who made the remark and ask for their clarification and any further disciplinary action would follow on from that - but that is some way off at this point."

Hackett is yet to comment, but a spokesman for referees' body the Professional Game Match Officials Board, of which Hackett is general manager, said he had nothing to do with the decision to rescind Terry's red card.

It is not the first time Ferguson has directed his wrath at Hackett.

After United's FA Cup exit at the hands of Portsmouth last season, Ferguson launched a stinging attack on referee Martin Atkinson's handling of the game and said Hackett was "not doing his job properly".

On that occasion, the FA found him not guilty of improper conduct.

Chelsea boss Luiz Felipe Scolari admitted he was pleasantly surprised that Terry had been cleared.

"I am satisfied because it is the first time I am a coach when they changed the decision of the referee," he said.

"I think only in England this would happen. In other countries the referee is the God.

"This time the referee said he made a mistake. For me it is a surprise, a positive surprise. The Football Association understands that the referee makes mistakes sometimes like you and me."

It was initially thought that Halsey had dismissed Terry for a professional foul on Jo, but he later clarified that the offence was "serious foul play". That is described by world governing body Fifa as using "excessive force or brutality against an opponent".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/t...utd/7620692.stm

Why bother? What are they gonna do exactly?

1. Fergie does NOT believe that, he is - as always - looking for an angle.

2. Does ANYONE take him seriously anymore?

3. The FA (as always) will do nothing...

now heres a catch 22 for fergie. complaining so aggresively about terrys card getting rescinded gets him into trouble as he believes man utd dont get away with anything. but if he gets away with this, does that completely destroy his own arguent? oh what a glorious conundrum.....

silly old sod....

I love the way he said that if it were a Manc player in JT's position, they wouldn't get the card rescinded. Err, Vidic got away with 2 red card offences at the weekend, and only misses one match. JT makes one yellow card offence and could've missed three. Where's the equalarity here, Fergie?

I hope he admits someday that they're a 2 man team - Vidic and Ronaldo.

And I just thought of something, the reason this was edited.

He's accusing the FA of favouritism, yes? Has he read any of the papers in the last 5 years? It's about time we had a bit of luck.

Edited September 17, 200817 yr by Ruh Buh Juh

It is all just good old fashioned manoeuvring to try and influence future decisions - Fergie has done it for years and Jose did it for us. No sense in trying to push facts to counter the argument as Fergie is more than aware what the facts are, he just chooses to ignore them in the same way that Jose did. All part of the game these days.

It is all just good old fashioned manoeuvring to try and influence future decisions - Fergie has done it for years and Jose did it for us. No sense in trying to push facts to counter the argument as Fergie is more than aware what the facts are, he just chooses to ignore them in the same way that Jose did. All part of the game these days.

Very true, but nowadays we have a manager who doesnt play along with these silly games like Jose did/does.

Not yet anyway Coco - who knows what may happen as we get to the last 10 games of the season and the pressure builds.

Not yet anyway Coco - who knows what may happen as we get to the last 10 games of the season and the pressure builds.

hopefully he`ll not bother with the mind games and just punch the opposing managers. no mind games, just go for the jugular and give him a dig.

if Fergie isn't happy with British refs just wait to hear what he has to say about the Champions League officials if Utd don't win tonight - Utd denied two very clear penalties so far.

if Fergie isn't happy with British refs just wait to hear what he has to say about the Champions League officials if Utd don't win tonight - Utd denied two very clear penalties so far.

Yeah, saw those incidents , what a shame eh. :D