Free Kick: The penalty against Fergie has taken a long time coming

We had better start, I suppose, by acknowledging that Alex Ferguson is a law unto himself. That at long last he should have been punished for an utterly unjustified attack on a referee comes, if anything, as a surprise.

As we know, a disappointing Manchester United side was held to a 2-2 draw at Old Trafford by modest Sunderland. Game over, Ferguson accused the referee, Alan Wiley, of being physically unfit, in need of periodic rests and vastly below the physical standards of his continental counterparts.

Alas for Fergie, this time sheer statistics proved his protest to be utterly unfounded, for it was shown that Wiley had covered more ground than all but four of the United team.

The Football Association proceeded to fine Ferguson £20,000 (Dh121,308) and ban him from the touchline for four matches: two of them suspended.

Cue furore. Referees themselves lined up behind the FA and Wiley. Some journalists — even to the point of ferocity attacked the ban, defended Fergie and deplored the threat of Alan Leighton, the national secretary of Prospect, the referees union, to bring the matter into court on the grounds of defamation. One of the most incensed and respected journalists thought it outrageous that a manager of Ferguson's infinite achievements should be thus humiliated — by contrast, what of consequence had Wiley ever done? Hardly the kind of defence which would stand up in court if it were ever to come to that.

Crying wolf

Yet the fact remains that Ferguson is forever crying wolf, reminding one of the old boxing manager's cry after a defeat, "We wus robbed!" Broadly speaking Fergie over the years had done what he wished. He still doesn't ever turn up to press conference after a Manchester United match, yet the Premier League has let him get away with this though it may not be obligatory to attend. No other manager behaves like this.

Ferguson surely made things worse when he told Wiley out of his huge generosity that he "had no concerns" about his refereeing other Manchester United games! Some olive branch! And since when did a Premiership manager have the right to appoint his team's referee?

What an expensive waste of time was England's recent friendly in Qatar versus Brazil. Thousands of miles to be travelled. A team consisting — thanks to injury — of almost exclusive reserves. A 1-0 defeat which while it certainly flattered the ersatz England team, hardly showed, as I'd suspected after Brazil's two poor final group qualifying results for the World Cup, a team capable of crushing all before it. Not to mention a stupendous gaffe by the FA, boorishly threatening to call off the game were their plane not allowed to land in a slot reserved for high-ranking Quataris.

Just the way to encourage a World Cup 2008 vote from Bin Hammam, Qatar FA president and member of the Fifa committee which will decide who gets the tournament!

Lord Triesman, unimpressive FA president, member of the World Cup bid committee (insisting on drawing a £100,000 salary for both jobs, though other countries separate them) turned up for the match. Essentially a politican rather than a football man, he's belatedly reorganised his committee. It could well be too little, too late.

The author is a soccer expert based in England