UNITED ROUND-UP
From the Guardian:
Sir Alex Ferguson is angry that the Football Association has spared Martin Keown from a ban despite conclusive television evidence that he pushed Ruud van Nistelrooy to the ground during Arsenal's league defeat at Manchester United in December. Ferguson believes the FA is being overly lenient and is privately appalled about what he perceives to be preferential treatment for the London club.
While some may see this as a case of the United manager being paranoid about their main title rivals, he believes that as Keown did not receive the standard three-match suspension for what was effectively a sending-off offence, his argument is supported.
Instead Keown was fined £5,000 and warned about his future conduct at a hearing on Wednesday. The FA had requested a video of the match to decide whether disciplinary action was necessary because the clash was missed by the referee Dermot Gallagher.
Ferguson, incensed about the five-match ban and £150,00 fine meted out to Roy Keane for the comments about Manchester City's Alfie Haaland in his autobiography, believes a United player would have been treated more harshly.
Last season he was furious about the length of time it took for the FA to deal with disciplinary hearings for Thierry Henry (abusive language to the referee Graham Poll) and Patrick Vieira (elbowing Chelsea's Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink), believing that Arsenal had tried to delay the cases in a deliberate attempt to help their players get off lightly.
At the time Ferguson accused Arsenal, whose vice-chairman David Dein is one of two vice-chairmen at the FA and among the Premiership's more influential figures, of using their considerable powers within Soho Square.
"They wouldn't have waited three months if it was a United player," he said. "It would have been Sing Sing for our player. But Arsenal have been very clever. They are hoping that everything will have been forgotten by the time the cases are heard."
United statement:
Below is a brief explanation of how we are distributing our allocation of just under 30,000 tickets for the Worthington Cup Final. The qualification criteria and distribution system are the same as we used for our last domestic cup final - the FA Cup in 1999 - and most previous cup finals.
· There are 19,000 Season Ticket holders with maximum vouchers who are registered on the Automatic Cup Ticket Scheme. In addition there are a further 2,600 Season Ticket holders with maximum vouchers. We have 20,300 tickets available for these two groups.
· Our 5,765 Box and Executive requirements are entitled to a ticket.
· 4,000 tickets allocated to Players/Directors/Officials which is in line with competition rules, the club always organise a trip for hard working full time staff and other tickets to buy (albeit through a ballot) to all the match day staff.
Additionally, numbers allocated to sponsors are minimal.
LMTB Holders
At the time when LMTB’s were introduced it was made clear in the Terms & Conditions (No. 5) that the facility holds no rights or priority for Cup Finals. These terms and conditions are printed annually in the books themselves.
David May is hoping to return to full training after recovering from a series of niggling injuries.
The United defender, who is out of contract and seemingly on his way out of Old Trafford in the summer, saw injuries to his knee and then foot scupper his hopes of forcing his way into the first team picture but he is now due to return to full training and will be keen to add to his five first team appearances this season.
"Everything was fine up until Christmas, then I had a week off to rest a slight problem with my knee," May told MUTV.
"As soon as I came back I sprained something on the bottom of my foot, which has taken its time to settle down. It feels better now and hopefully I will be training again next week."
May has been with United for eight years, but he has struggled to establish himself in the first team and has only 68 Premiership matches since his £1.4 million switch from Blackburn Rovers. And the 33-year-old is likely to be looking for a new club in the summer as Sir Alex Ferguson is unlikely to offer him a new deal.
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