Sir Alex Rants About Terry Ruling

Sir Alex Ferguson is livid about the overturning of John Terry's red card. After a successful appeal, Terry is now free to play in Sunday's match against Manchester United. Sir-guson is red-faced with anger over the decision, which he claimed, and I'm paraphrasing, never would have been done for Manchester United. Okay, so Sirgie is always red-faced, but nevertheless.

Now, is Sir-guson whining once again? Yes. Was the foul not really a red card? Yes. Neither of these issues is the point. The main issue here is that overturning the ruling on the pitch is a terrible precedent to set.

I have seen countless red cards given over the years that were much less of a foul than Terry's play. The Chelsea skipper took out a man that had gone past him. He wasn't last man back, it was a professional foul, and a yellow card should have been thrown. But come on, I have witnessed players not even making contact and receiving red cards that weren't overturned. It was a referee's judgment call. Are we going to start overturning penalties given?

Sir-guson has no credibility in his outrage because he simply sees the world through Man U red colored glasses. His argument should not have been that Man U wouldn't have been afforded the same courtesy as John Terry and Chelsea. He should have come out and said that this decision was made in opposition to so many appeals before it. That you cannot just set the precedent of overturning questionable red cards that were obvious yellows because of the stature of the player involved. Giving a red card for a foul that was at the least a very, very strong and obvious yellow, should never be overturned. It's ridiculous.

If you believe Sirgie's story, then head referee Keith Hackett stepped in and reversed the official on the pitch's call, because the official refused to do so himself. The ref was then demoted to League Two for his error and refusal. If this is the case, then the whole incident needs to be reviewed by the League.

Fergie is so blind to the fact that for every decision against him and his club, ten decisions have gone their way. I'm never sure whether he is a master manipulator, setting the table for the next time there is a call against Man U. Or just an angry, club biased, old manager. Even if he is just manipulating, he is missing the opportunity to shine a light on the appeal process and how something isn't right in this situation. His whining only gets in the way of that fact.

I believe that had this been David Wheater getting the red, and 'Boro was playing Hull City next weekend, that the card would have stood. This decision was made because it was John Terry and there was an all important Chelsea-Man U match the following week. The real tragedy is that Jose Mourinho is not around anymore to comment on the situation. Come back Jose, you could really fill up my mid-week posts.