MANCHESTER CITY are demanding an official explanation after the referee responsible for the infamous “Fergie Time” controversy was put in charge of today’s Manchester derby.

Senior officials at Eastlands are so concerned about Martin Atkinson’s appointment that, with Roberto Mancini’s agreement, they were trying to contact the Premier League’s head of referees, Mike Riley, last night to express their concerns. The club will demand to know why another referee was not appointed.

Atkinson has been switched from Stoke’s match against Bolton despite being heavily criticised when the teams met at Old Trafford in September. He awarded four minutes of stoppage time but actually played seven, with Michael Owen scoring a 96th-minute winner.

Today’s match was due to be officiated by Steve Bennett, but he has been on a Uefa course in Romania and contacted the referees’ professional body yesterday to inform them he had not been able to fly back because of the Icelandic volcano eruption.

Meanwhile, Ferguson has said he has “no regrets” about losing the Argentine striker Carlos Tevez to City, even though Wayne Rooney’s ankle injury has been a devastating blow.

“You cannot dispute the fact that he (Tevez) has had a great goal-scoring season, but I’ve got no regrets at all. None whatsoever. We tried to buy him but we didn’t match the money they wanted (the consortium that owned Tevez’ registration) and therefore the boy moved on. There is no bitterness for me.”

Ferguson added: “I thought he had a good first season with us, I must admit, but in the second season he didn’t feature as much.”

GuardianService