Sir Alex Ferguson has denied suggestions he may have had
influence over referees during his decorated career.
Comments from former official Mark Halsey this week, in
which he referred to having a "good relationship" with the Scot, led
to claims Ferguson may have had undue influence during his long stay in charge
of Manchester United.
Ferguson denied any wrongdoing, though, and said the
extent of his relationship with Halsey had been to support him during his
battle with cancer.
"I can't believe...obviously there is an Alex
Ferguson element in his book, he thought was important," the former United
manager told MUTV.
"Most of the managers, particularly in the north
west, supported him, and lots of players by the way, when he had the cancer,
him and his wife, it was a terrible period for the lad and quite rightly the
football fraternity got behind him and supported him.
"We have him jerseys after jersey for the dinners he
was having and of course a Manchester United strip figures greatly in these
auctions, a signed strip from all the players."
Ferguson was no stranger to fallings out with officials
during his time in the dugout, and added: "The laughable part for me was
how influenced the refereeing fraternity.
"This is a guy who has the worst record of any
manager in the history of English football, fined £100,000 by them, suspended
so many times, that's some influence, I must say. It's a little bit Walter
Mitty."
Since retiring Ferguson has had hip surgery but has been
back at Old Trafford recently to watch how his chosen successor, David Moyes,
has been faring.
Ferguson was present to witness Wayne Rooney's two goals
in United's 4-2 victory over Bayer Leverkusen.
"On Tuesday night they were terrific," added
Ferguson. "Wayne's performance was fantastic, I was pleased to see that.
He's got his energy back, the determination, his purpose to attack players, was
all very encouraging to me.
"Being a director I'm delighted to see that, he's
back to what we always remember."
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