Sir Alex sympathises with Liverpool

Sir Alex Ferguson has claimed that Liverpool will be happy not to have banned Luis Suarez for the biting incident themselves as the FA governing body cannot be trusted.

Ferguson compares the Suarez biting incident to Eric Cantona’s case when Cantona was banned by the FA from playing for nine months for kicking a Crystal Palace fan in 1995 after the Football Association had first promised Manchester United that a club ban would be enough.

Ferguson said: “I think back to Cantona and I have to say that a nine-month ban doesn’t equate to a 10-match, does it? I can understand how Liverpool are aggrieved at it, I must say that. I keep going back to [Cantona] – the FA done us that day, we would never allow that to happen now. I would never have listened to them in the first place saying that if ‘you make your punishment we’ll be happy’.

“We did that, gave him a four-month ban and then they turned round two or three days [later, and said]: ‘Right, we’re charging him.’ We would never allow that to happen again at this club.”

When asked if this was the reason Liverpool didn’t choose to levy their own ban on Suarez, Ferguson said: “I’ll bet they’re glad they didn’t. It didn’t work with us, that’s for sure. David Davies [then the FA's spokesman] promised us that, if we did it, there’d be no more action taken – bloody hell. If you think about it – a nine-month ban, its quite incredible, I still can’t get round that.”

Sir Alex is also happy that Arsenal will be forming a guard of honour for United when they play against them at the Emirates tomorrow.

Source: Guardian