News: David Gill, Manchester United's chief executive, was yesterday forced to make a hasty show of support for Alex Ferguson after describing the 63-year-old manager as "sackable".
The remark was made during interviews related to United's six-month financial results which, as expected, showed pre-tax profits more than halved to £12.4 million.
Gill later insisted his comment on BBC radio had been taken "out of context". He said that discussion of a replacement for Ferguson "has not even entered our pysche at the moment" and that he had merely sought to make the factual point that all senior employees at a public company are ultimately vulnerable.
Ferguson will switch this summer to a rolling contract which can be terminated by either side at 12 months' notice.
His position is still regarded as impregnable, despite United's early exit from the Champions League and probable failure to win the Premiership this season.
Gill said Ferguson would be consulted about his eventual successor, but so would other senior Old Trafford figures such as Bobby Charlton.
Gill made the controversial suggestion that the final stages of the Champions League might in future be seeded, saying the lack of Spanish clubs in this year's quarter-finals and the long list of big-name casualties at the last-16 stage, including United, might be unattractive to sponsors.
He said United had discussed the issue with Milan before the clubs' Champions League tie. "One thing you could do is tennis-style seedings," he said. "There is an argument for that and I'm sure Uefa will look at it."
Gill reiterated that the pre-season signing of Wayne Rooney meant little money would be available to Ferguson for new signings, although funds will be available for a goalkeeper assuming Roy Carroll rejects United's latest offer. Gill added that he was confident Ryan Giggs would agree a new contract.
Chelsea yesterday expressed concern at the strength of language employed by Uefa on Monday when charging them for bringing the game into disrepute. The club are worried that it will be difficult for the ruling body's disciplinary department to behave impartially against the backdrop of such fierce condemnation. "Uefa appear to have come to their conclusions without considering both sides of the argument," a Chelsea source said. "They have completely jumped the gun, acting as judge and jury. How can we hope to receive a fair hearing?"
The worry surfaced as Uefa's director of communications made it plain that expulsion from the Champions League was a real possibility. "A coin was thrown at the referee Anders Frisk at Roma and the club lost the game 3-0 as a result of the decision of the control and disciplinary body," said William Gaillard.
"That is something where there is an objective responsibility - someone threw a coin, but we don't know who. At the same time, the charges against Chelsea are most grave because they are not an objective responsibility. This was as part of a conspiracy (of using lies as a pre-match tactic)."
If the control and disciplinary body consider a similar sanction to be appropriate, Chelsea's position in the quarter-finals would be overturned, since a 3-0 first-leg win would give Barcelona a 5-4 aggregate victory.
Chelsea's anxiety that Uefa is acting as "judge and jury" has been raised by the composition of the disciplinary panel that will hear the evidence. The prosecution will be conducted by Uefa's disciplinary inspector Edgar Obertufer, who wrote the charge against Chelsea in which Jose Mourinho and his staff were accused of having "created a poisoned and negative ambience".
His evidence centres on alleged inconsistencies in Chelsea's report to Uefa over an alleged incident in the players' tunnel in Barcelona.
Uefa has discharged its most senior disciplinary official, Josep Lluis Vilaseca Guasch, from the hearing as he is a Catalan. It is expected instead that Jacques Antenen, the chief examining magistrate in the Swiss district of Vaud, will chair the hearing.
Though Antenen is only a minor official within the Swiss football federation, his fellow delegates on a nine-man panel have more prominent positions within their national federations, all of which are members of Uefa.
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