Alex Ferguson was found guilty of improper conduct yesterday at a personal hearing in London before an FA disciplinary commission. The panel warned him as to his future conduct but stopped short of handing out the fine that had been widely expected.
The Manchester United manager had suggested there were "sinister" reasons behind an unfavourable refereeing decision during his team's Premiership match against Newcastle in April, a comment which resulted in an FA charge which Ferguson contested.
Ferguson was infuriated by the referee Neale Barry's refusal to award a penalty when Andy O'Brien appeared to foul Alan Smith during the 2-1 win over Newcastle on April 24th.
He claimed the officials' attitudes towards his side had been affected by Mike Riley's decision to award United a fortunate penalty during their 2-0 win over Arsenal in October.
"It is getting ridiculous now," said Ferguson on the club's in-house television station after the Newcastle game. "I am not sure if they are instructed but it is looking sinister to me.
"That is the same referee (Barry) who gave Portsmouth a penalty against us for the slightest tug by Rio Ferdinand and also denied us an absolute certainty when Louis Saha was fouled at Chelsea (in the League Cup semi-final).
"Since that penalty-kick against Arsenal, it seems to me we are not going to get another one, no matter what the circumstances. One of our players will need to get shot for us to get one."
With less than three weeks to go before the start of the Premiership season, Ferguson joins Jose Mourinho in the FA's bad books, with the governing body having reacted angrily to comments made by the Chelsea manager in a press conference last week.
Mourinho was critical of aspects of Chelsea's fixture list and of the Arsenal vice-chairman David Dein's role as FA vice-chairman, comments it they described as "unnecessary, unhelpful, bad for the image of the game and inaccurate".
The Chelsea manager was fined £5,000 and warned as to his future conduct last month after suggesting that United players "cheated" during their League Cup semi-final first leg last season.
Meanwhile, Mourinho wants Michael Essien to fill the one "space" remaining in his first-team squad following yesterday's £21 million signing of Shaun Wright-Phillips.
The 23-year-old former Manchester City winger completed a medical at the club yesterday and is expected to fly out to the United States with his Chelsea team-mates today, when he will begin his fight against Arjen Robben, Damien Duff and Joe Cole for a first-team place.
"He can be good for us. I think he is similar to me," Robben said last night. "He can run fast. He plays on the right, I play more on the left, but he is a great player with a great dribble and great pace. We may have the strongest midfield in Europe now, but maybe we had the strongest last year already.
"We feel strong again. We didn't lose players in the summer so we have the same team with two extra players in Asier Del Horno and Wright-Phillips, so that's good." It will be three if Mourinho has his way and signs Essien.
"We have still a space in midfield," said Mourinho, who has already had a £17 million bid for the Ghanaian turned down. "It is an area where - we don't have problems, we are not in trouble - but we have a space, so during the open market if we have the chance to get a good player we will do it."
Lyon's president Jean-Michel Aulas has set a deadline for negotiations to be concluded and Essien has registered his disquiet at the club's reluctance to sanction the move, although his team-mates are privately resigned to losing him.
"I've told Chelsea that Michael would only be permitted to leave for the same amount of money as that with which they tried to buy Steven Gerrard - £32 million," said Aulas.
"For the moment, Chelsea have refused to raise their bid to that amount. I faxed the Chelsea chief executive, Peter Kenyon, and told him I wouldn't discuss this matter any more after my return to France, either on July 21th or 25th, dependent upon when Lyon are eliminated from the Peace Cup tournament. That is our deadline."
Mourinho said: "It's something that we have to respect. We made the offer, we know that the player would like very much to come to Chelsea but they can control their destiny, we cannot control their destiny. So if they decide they are going to sell we are waiting, but we can do nothing."
Wright-Phillips' former manager Stuart Pearce will be given around £12 million to spend at Manchester City and intends to use £500,000 on Fulham's Andy Cole, who has had the first phase of his medical.
Roy Keane's hamstring problem has ruled him out of Manchester United's tour of Hong Kong, China and Japan, and he may struggle to be fit for their Champions League qualifier.
Newcastle United are continuing to pursue Nicolas Anelka despite the French striker's insistence that he does not now want to leave Fenerbahce after all. "I am happy here," said Anelka.
