Food for thought Alex

not really surprising is it - if they dealt with him properly he would need a season ticket for the stand

 

FA failing in their duty to be fair yet again but hardly surprising. Love to know how he gets away with it, I doubt any of the other premiership managers would have gotten away without a touchline ban.

 

the problem with touchline bans is that they have no real effect - i think they us the ratio system to punish fergie - 5 offences = one ban

 

The thing I'm most surprised at is the lack of action against the players who crowded the referee during/after the game. Surely this is against the respect campaign? Considering Cabaye got booked for bouncing the ball, I'd suggest double standards.

 

You are right touchline bans are a joke as far as punishments go but it is the punishment they are supposed to give out for that sort of offence.

Like you say SAF because of his managerial pedigree in winning trophies is allowed more leeway regarding his behaviour. It isn't right one should not absolve the other.

 

If anything, We at united get the brunt of the FA force as they come down harder on us than anyone else. Fergie has had touchline ban before and not only once.

Typical ABUs. You forget things like this and make it out as we get preferential treatment. We're not. If anything, past action shows we get treated much more harshly due to being the biggest club in England, supporters of other clubs out for blood and the FA wanted to seem strong and unbais.

 

it was a frustrated wild swing, regardless of intention or result, he had a wild hack that didn't connect. Not good and I would have decked him and taken a red.

Odds are if that was Barton, no wild swing, coward!!

 

Just shows the difference in the level of professionalism between Colo and Rooney if you ask me .

 

Lol

 

Actually I take full account of his past history. I know he has been punished several times for this sort of thing. That makes him a constant repeat offender. If anything they should be escalating his punishments because he obviously does not learn the lesson, or he just doesn't care. Either way he has in this instance been let off when in my opinion others wouldn't.

 

He's been managing United for over 20 years, so I don't buy the repeat offender, bit at all. How many other managers are still in the game, that have managed at the top level he has?

I remember when SAF made a comment about a ref before the match. the FA were going to punish him until it came to light that 2 others (I think it was Carlo, Chelsea's manager at the time and forgot the 3rd person) also made comments about a ref before the match (I think Carlo and SAF made the comment about the same ref). So they instead decided to warn the managers.

We get treated differently. It is mostly to please opposition fans like yourself who think we get of lightly when in most cases its not.

 

To be honest one thing I think we can both agree on is that the FA is extremely arbitrary when it comes to handing out punishments. I don't agree with your suggestion that the big clubs get treated more firmly in order to satisfy the baying masses of opposition fans, but i'm sure we can agree that the FA should just be consistent.

 

Why? I see no reason why anybody, including Rooney should be intimidated by Barton. Biggest faux hardman in the premiership. I can't wait for someone to clock that tit.

 

Actually I thought the whole Newcastle team showed a lot of professionalism for that incident - I've seen teams wade in en masse to push and shove after similar incidents, and that includes Utd. Does make you wonder - if all the Newcastle players had shown more outrage, would Rooney have gotten a booking?

No manager has ever been punished for questioning a decision - managers are only ever punished when they are judged to have questioned the integrity or professionalism of the officials. In this at least the FA is consistent, although you are right that so many of their decisions are arbitrary and based on media profile. They were about to charge SAF last season cos of comments he made to the mainstream media, until it was pointed out that both Ancelotti and Pulis had made identical comments to local media and not been charged.