Sir Alex Ferguson is expected to escape punishment despite claims made in Jaap Stam's autobiography that the Manchester United boss illegally approached him while he was still a player at PSV Eindhoven. In the book, "Head to Head," which is being serialised in The Mirror newspaper all this week, Stam revealed that he met Ferguson at an apartment near Amsterdam's Schipol airport. This goes against transfer regulations which state that a player's club must be approached first.
However, PSV have said that they do not intend to pursue the matter, although they did criticise Ferguson for his actions. The English FA have no jurisdiction to deal with the issue as FIFA are responsible for overseeing international transfers. "It is up to the Dutch FA to raise the issue with FIFA on behalf of the club if they feel it is appropriate," confirmed FA spokesman Paul Newman.
As FIFA are unlikely to launch an investigation unless they receive a complaint from PSV through the Dutch FA, it seems Ferguson will almost certainly go unpunished.
Meanwhile, Stam has revealed in his book he did not want United to pull out of the FA Cup two seasons ago. "People all over the place were saying that we were 'killing the FA Cup' and those words really hurt us. To a man we wanted to stay and play, but the board made a decision and that was that. Whether we liked it or not, we had to be professional and do what we were told. It was so hard to take, but we just had to accept it," he said.
Stam also lashed out at Arsenal's Patrick Vieira in today's extract of the book. He claimed that Vieira has only himself to blame for his on-going disciplinary problems.
"Patrick does stupid things. He is a great player but he ruins his game by picking up too many cards for stupid little things. There's always an elbow here or a sly kick here, and when you look at him it's easy to see when the red mist is about to descend," said Stam.
"I know Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has claimed that opposing players are always out to wind him up, but that's football. You just have to get on with it. His whole style involves playing on the edge, and if you play like that you can expect to get on the wrong side of a referee every now and then," he added.
Filed by Amanda Fennelly
