FA charge Ferguson with misconduct

The new season is less than a fortnight old and already Sir Alex Ferguson and the FA are at loggerheads.

The new season is less than a fortnight old and already Sir Alex Ferguson and the FA are at loggerheads.

Ferguson, who has learned his team will play former club Rangers in the Champions League, was hit with an expected FA charge into his conduct during last Saturday's Premiership win at Newcastle.

Ferguson was called by the FA for his televised four-letter tirade at fourth official Jeff Winter, which came after referee Uriah Rennie had already ordered the Scot from the line.

Ferguson's disgust at Rennie's failure to award a free-kick and send off Andy O'Brien after the Newcastle defender clearly chopped Ryan Giggs down when the Welshman was clear on goal, was obvious enough, but it is the manner in which he continued the protest that seems certain to attract punishment.

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The FA can hit Ferguson with a fine, a ban, or both, as was the case with Sheffield United's Neil Warnock recently, although with United not due to play at Old Trafford again until the flashpoint visit of Arsenal on September 21st, they have plenty of time to act.

Ferguson has been given 14 days to respond, although by then he will almost certainly have angered FA officials even more by pulling Paul Scholes out of the England squad for the Euro 2004 double-header with Macedonia and Liechtenstein.

Just under 12 months since Ferguson famously informed Sven-Goran Eriksson that Scholes would not be fit for a friendly against Portugal then forced the England boss to watch his midfielder turn out in a Premiership encounter with Middlesbrough, it appears the United boss is about to do exactly the same thing again.

While Scholes has been plagued by the problem for 'a few weeks', the United boss believes the injury worsened dramatically during his international absence.

"Paul has been carrying a hernia problem for quite a bit," revealed the United boss.

"We told the England people about it but they still played him for an hour. When he came back he was in a real state. It is really painful and at the moment it is not possible for him to play two games in a week.

"He will need an operation at some point but we will have to pick our moment and we will see how he is after Sunday's game."