Ferguson suspended and fined

ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE SUSPENSIONS:THE ENGLISH FA yesterday gave Alex Ferguson a two-match touchline ban and a €11,867 fine for abusing a referee, fined David Moyes €5,934 for a similar offence and banned Didier Drogba for three games - including Chelsea's televised game against Arsenal - for throwing a coin at Burnley fans during last week's League Cup tie at Stamford Bridge.

Ferguson's punishment came after the Manchester United manager criticised Mike Dean after his side's 4-3 win over Hull earlier this month. He was angry Andy Turner had not received a second yellow card for a foul on Michael Carrick, and that Hull were later awarded a penalty for a Rio Ferdinand challenge on Bernard Mendy the manager felt was innocuous.

"It should have been at least a yellow card," Ferguson said of Turner's challenge. He described the penalty award as "very soft".

The 66-year-old's suspension starts on December 2nd, meaning he will miss the League Cup quarter-final against Blackburn Rovers the following night - when Greater Manchester police have unusually agreed to United playing at home at the same time as Manchester City, who are scheduled to play Paris St-Germain in the Uefa Cup that night - followed by a Premier League match at home to Sunderland on December 6th.

Ferguson was also banned for two matches, and fined €5,934, last season for using "insulting words" against Mark Clattenburg during a game against Bolton. In his absence his side lost to West Ham before beating Birmingham City 1-0.

Moyes, meanwhile, was fined and "warned as to his future conduct" for his behaviour during Everton's 3-2 league win at Stoke City in September, when Alan Wiley sent him to the stands for his reaction to his side not being awarded a possible penalty.

Drogba's punishment starts immediately and rules him out of league matches against Newcastle and Bolton, as well as the Arsenal game.

Barcelona's former Manchester United defender Gerard Pique suggested yesterday Ferguson was unlucky that anyone could make enough sense of his comments to be offended by them. Admitting he "got lost a little bit in the team talks" during his time in England, Pique said: "The gaffer used a very Scottish kind of English that might as well have been Chinese as far as I was concerned. But I wasn't the worst - there are players in the current squad who still don't understand him."

Pique also criticised his former team-mates' diet. "It was outrageous," he said. "Everyone ate whatever they wanted to eat . . . Every 15 days they would put us on what we called the 'spare-tyre machine' to measure our body fat. You would be amazed at how many top players practically broke the machine because their diet was based on beer and burgers."