In tackling referees, Man United’s Alex Ferguson steps way out of line

United’s Ferguson makes blood boil again

PARIS — So infuriating, so unnecessary. Manchester United boss Alex Ferguson stepped way, way out of line in accusing Premier League referee Alan Wiley of being unfit. In other workplaces, such abuse would be unacceptable — akin to yelling across the office that a colleague is a fat fool.

Pushed to extremes, such disrespect for those who do their best to officiate football but will never be as infallible as robots leads to referees quitting the game in droves. At worst, it leads to the horrors inflicted on match officials such as He Zhibiao in China and Prakong Sukguamala in Thailand.

Only sprinting like a gazelle saved He from an almost certain beating after he red-carded three players in a chaotic July 26 playoff between the cities of Beijing and Tianjin. Tianjin player Zhao Shitong, who chased the referee across half the field before pushing him to the ground, was subsequently banned for life.

Prakong reportedly needed 50 stitches and broke a finger last year after an entire team, Kuiburi FC, punched and kicked him for sending off three players in a match to decide promotion to Thailand’s second division. Police fired warning shots to disperse the mob, reports said.

Ferguson can’t be blamed for such hooliganism, especially in Asian leagues with a history of match-fixing and official corruption.

But as the world’s most famous working football manager, his words and actions echo in all corners of the footballing globe. Like it or not, he and other managers in football’s top tiers are role models. They hurt football with their constant gripes about on-field decisions that go against them, perpetuating the poisonous notion of referees as incompetent whipping-boys at best, enemies at worse. And it is not just Ferguson, although he is the undisputed master of this dark art.

Aug. 29: Alan Pardew of Southampton, now struggling in League One after dropping out of England’s top two flights, says referee Carl Boyeson “robbed us.” ”I’m struggling to remember a referee who is as bad as him,” said the former Reading, West Ham and Charlton boss. “I feel as sick as I’ve felt as a football manager.”

Aug. 16: Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez, asked about the officiating in a 2-1 loss to Tottenham, removed his glasses from his pocket and pointed to them. The clear message: Referee Phil Dowd is blind.

June 24: Hull manager Phil Brown is fined for describing referee Mike Riley’s performance as “disgraceful” in a 2-1 FA Cup loss to Arsenal. “We’ve not been beaten by Arsenal — we’ve been beaten by the referee and the linesman,” he said.

To imagine that such incessant attacks on the integrity and competence of match officials doesn’t trickle down to lower levels of the game is naive. What fans see on television on Saturday is often repeated in their own matches on Sunday.

Last year, in launching a campaign to root out unacceptable behavior, the Football Association said 7,000 referees in England quit football every year because of abuse from players and the sidelines. There has been progress but more is needed. Serious assaults on referees declined by 10 percent last season but more than 500 still reported being subject to physical abuse.

“Football reflects society,” says Dermot Collins, who manages the Respect campaign. “Somehow we got to the point where players felt they had the right to offer a running commentary right through the game.”

Ferguson did offer qualified apologies for his untruthful claim that Wiley, whom he has often criticized, “just wasn’t fit enough for a game of that standard,” after the Premier League champions managed only a 2-2 draw against Sunderland on Oct. 3. Ferguson explained that his legendary temper got the better of him because he was disappointed by his expensive team’s poor play.

Feeble, really.

“Akin to going to work, having a bad day, coming home and kicking the dog,” says Alan Leighton of the Prospect trade union, which represents most of England’s 19 full-time professional referees, including Wiley. The union wants Ferguson to be banned for several matches. A disciplinary commission that can issue a warning, a fine, a touchline ban or worse will hear the case in coming weeks or months.

Ferguson, although clumsily voiced, did actually have a point in suggesting that football must ensure that referees keep pace with the fast modern game. A report on this issue in March from the associations that represent managers and players made sobering reading. Hard to argue with the report’s recommendations that there needs to be more professional referees and far better selection, evaluation and training of match officials — especially after referee Mike Jones’ recent blunder in awarding a goal against Liverpool that deflected off a beach ball

But such wisdom got lost in Ferguson’s tirade.

John Leicester is an international sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at jleicester(at)ap.org