Rio Ferdinand hits back at Wigan owner Dave Whelan

Andy Hodgson11 April 2012

Rio Ferdinand has hit back at suggestions Manchester United are given preferential treatment by the Football Association.

Wayne Rooney, who will start at Stamford Bridge tonight, escaped punishment for elbowing Wigan midfielder James McCarthy on Saturday and was widely expected to be handed a retrospective punishment.

Alan Hansen led the chorus of criticism on Match of the Day and Wigan owner Dave Whelan today voiced his opinion that the FA are "intimidated" by United.

But Ferdinand dismissed those claims, pointing to the four-match ban he received last season for a similar incident involving Hull's Craig Fagan. The ban was extended by one game after the FA considered the appeal "frivolous".

Ferdinand wrote on his Twitter account: "The FA 'bottle' it with Man utd is all I keep hearing/reading . . . well you never said they 'bottle' it when I got a 4game ban last season . . ."

Whelan was dismayed by the FA's verdict, and said today: "It sends out a terrible message. Something is wrong when a top international like Rooney is seen doing something like this, as clear as day, and is allowed to get away without being punished.

"If it was any other player or club, you can bet your life he would have been sent off. But officials seem intimidated by the words 'Rooney' and 'United'.

"Manchester United are allowed to get away with things the rest of us get pulled up for. And you can't have one set of rules for one club and another for the rest.

"I don't care what the FA say about the matter being dealt with at the time by us getting a
free-kick. They, and everyone else in football, know justice isn't being served here.

"The FA will be delighted they can hide behind their rules and let Rooney off, as they are frightened of taking sanctions against him and his club."

But the statistics do not back up Whelan's claims that United are given special treatment.

Since 2005 there have been 29 Premier League players charged for incidents unseen by the referee on the field of play.

Only Manchester City (five), Newcastle and Arsenal (both four) have had more players charged than United (three) during the same period.

Whelan's club have had only one player retrospectively charged since their promotion to the Premier League six years ago.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in