FIFA CLUB WORLD CUP FINAL:  MANCHESTER UNITED'S simmering discontent with the English Football Association erupted in Japan yesterday when their captain, Gary Neville, accused its disciplinary committee of treating Patrice Evra's altercation with Chelsea ground staff like a criminal case and condemned the lack of professional football voices on the panel.

Evra was handed a four-match ban and fined €16,000 after an independent committee found him guilty of improper conduct during a post-match dispute at Stamford Bridge last season.

The FA responded to criticism of the verdict by publishing the hearing's full findings on its website this week, in which United assistant manager Mike Phelan and first-team fitness coach Tony Strudwick were described as unreliable witnesses.

That show of transparency has incensed Alex Ferguson, although the United manager has limited his public comments on the matter as his side attempt to win the Club World Cup in Yokohama tomorrow. It was left to his captain, accused in the report of "behaving in an abusive and provocative manner towards Chelsea ground staff", to detail United's misgivings.

"They said I was abusive? That's kind," Neville said. "To be honest with you, the disciplinary process is, at best, erratic. It always has been. There is no consistency. This incident was six, seven months ago - I thought speed was meant to have been brought into the disciplinary hearings. We're in the same situation as we were before - it seems to go on forever."

Neville also highlighted the lack of figures from the professional game in the disciplinary process. David Pleat, the former Tottenham manager who is now a newspaper columnist, was part of the four-man panel that decided Evra's guilt and rejected Phelan's claim that the France international was racially abused by Chelsea groundsman Sam Bethell.

The others were Nicholas Stewart QC, who chaired the committee, Barry Bright, chairman of the FA's disciplinary committee, and Roy Carter from the West Riding FA. United have decided not to appeal Evra's punishment. The United captain added: "You can't do anything about the FA disciplinary process. I gave up years ago trying to be a voice, trying to bring reason to certain things.

"You need consistency, which means you need the same people sitting all the time, professionals who understand the game, who understand the passion of the game, the human element of the game. Sensible people - that doesn't always happen. It's erratic . . . You haven't a clue what you're going to get when you go down there.

"Will I get charged for this? I'd put it far more in the hands of the professional game because you've got non-football people sitting on the panel, sitting opposite you with no understanding of the game, and that's a problem. They've tried to introduce a more professional element, but they don't really have a say, the main decisions are made by the non-football people. From what I can see it is more like a criminal case than a football disciplinary hearing."

United will become the first British team to win the Club World Cup in its current format should they beat Liga de Quito of Ecuador in tomorrow's final. Neville said: "We don't regard this as a big tournament in our country, and even at our club we are guilty of thinking that way too at times, but you see the way the Italians or the Spanish celebrate when they win it, this is the biggest thing for them, to be world champions."

Meanwhile, the Real Madrid president, Ramon Calderon, accused Ferguson yesterday of showing a lack of respect after the United manager denied reports in Spain claiming the two clubs had reached a gentleman's agreement on a transfer of Cristiano Ronaldo at the end of the season. Ferguson said of Real he "would not sell them a virus".

Calderon said: "It is sad that a professional with the career of Mr Ferguson can make declarations like these, in addition to some of the other unfortunate things in the last few months." Of the club's interest in Ronaldo this summer, Calderon said: "The matter is dead and as such I don't want to talk about it any more."