Ferguson Admits Fa Charge

Sir Alex Ferguson has admitted an FA charge of using abusive language to referee Mark Clattenburg. The Manchester United manager confronted Clattenburg following his side's 1-0 defeat to Bolton last month. Ferguson was unhappy at what he believed was Clattenburg's failure to protect his players from Bolton's roughhouse tactics and repeatedly swore and jabbed his finger at the referee.

The day after the game Ferguson was still clearly unhappy. "You expect a team in Bolton's position to play that way," he said at the time. "A team near the bottom will battle, scrap and fight because they do not have the quality of teams like us, and that is why they we are in different positions in the league. But the key thing is how the referee controls it."

Ferguson can expect a fine, but will also be wary of the fact that he was given a two-game touchline ban after verbally abusing fourth official Jeff Winter in 2003.