Sir Alex Ferguson is likely to be charged after his rant about the fitness of referees at the weekend. Speaking after the 2-2 draw with Sunderland, Ferguson said that the fitness of referee, Alan Wiley, was appalling.

Ferguson is not shy of making a few comments about referees, especially when his side have just come off the back of a bad performance. Ferguson makes a good point that the fitness of referees in the rest of Europe is a lot higher than those in England but the Football Association will still invite him into the office to explain his comments.

He said: “He didn’t add any time on for the goal we scored. There were only four minutes and two seconds’ injury time. There should have been another 30 seconds, but he was actually walking up the pitch after the goal, needing a rest. He just wasn’t fit enough for a game of that stature.”

“The fitness of both sets of players, the pace of the game, demanded a referee who was fit. He’s not fit. It’s an indictment of our game that we see referees from abroad are fit as butchers’ dogs. We’ve got some good referees in our country who are fit, but he wasn’t. He was taking 30 seconds to book a player as he was taking a rest.”

The FA are unlikely to take the comments with a pinch of salt because they are very good at protecting referees in the Premier League. Ferguson was probably a little annoyed that his side had played badly and could not get another three points on their title hunt this season.

Had they won the game then the obvious thing to say would be that the Scotsman would not have said a thing about the referee. However, when you draw a game you want to win or lose a game you need to draw then it is very easy to start looking for excuses.

The FA have said: “The fitness of select group match officials is continually assessed throughout the season to ensure it is of the highest possible standard.”

The point is that in recent years officials in other high profile European games have been a lot fitter and have been able to get a lot of decisions right. Maybe the situation in England needs to be reviewed but for now the FA seem happy with things the way they are.