Sir Alex Apologises to Wiley
Sir Alex has issued an apology in the form of a statement released today:-
“I apologise to Mr Wiley for any personal embarrassment that my remarks may have caused and to The FA for going public with my views.”
“In retrospect, I accept that this could be deemed as expressing those views in an inappropriate forum.”
“It was never my intention to bring the focus of intense media attention on Mr Wiley. I intend to contact him personally after I return from a trip overseas during this international break.”
“I would wish it to be noted that I have always respected Mr Wiley’s integrity and that I did not state or imply:
· that Mr Wiley is a bad referee;
· that he was in any way biased;
· that decision-making generally during the game was poor, or
· that he missed any key incident during the game.
“My only intention in speaking publicly, was to highlight what I believe to be a serious and important issue in the game, namely that the fitness levels of referees must match the ever increasing demands of the modern game, which I hope will now be properly addressed through the appropriate formal channels.”
As I said at the time, Fergie was expressing an opinion and his comments were not solely aimed at Alan Wiley but at referees generally in England and that whilst he probably need not apologise for what he said, when and where he said it was probably inappropriate and this seems to be the basic gist of what the statement is saying.
Hopefully, that will be the end of this matter.
