Sir Alex furious with ref decisions

Sir Alex Ferguson says the system for assessing referees needs to be overhauled after United were denied a penalty against Portsmouth.

Cristiano Ronaldo was fouled by Sylvain Distin in the penalty area in the seventh minute, but referee Martin Atkinson waved play on.
Sir Alex told MUTV: “It’s absolutely ridiculous. I just cannot explain that decision. Managers get sacked on the basis of things like that. And he’s going to referee a game next week? It’s ridiculous.”

Atkinson later sent off United's substitute goalkeeper Tomasz Kuszczak when arguably he shouldn’t have, because Anderson and Wayne Rooney were covering when the Pole felled Portsmouth striker Milan Baros. Pompey's Sulley Muntari scored the resulting penalty past emergency keeper Rio Ferdinand to knock the Reds out of the cup.

“We’re out and you could look at a lot of things,” Sir Alex added. “We missed a lot of chances for one, but the refereeing performance… Keith Hackett (of Match Officials Board) has got a lot to answer for. He’s not doing his job properly.

“He should be assessed like everyone else. Martin Atkinson will referee next week, no problem. But his performance today should not be accepted in our game. I agree with Sepp Blatter, the standards here as opposed to the Continent is behind Europe. It’s a big problem.”

Assistant boss Carlos Queiroz told BBC Sport: "We should have a situation where refs get red cards. This ref today deserved somebody to come onto the pitch, show him a red card and take him out of the game."