Under-fire Ferguson brings President Obama into referee debate

 

Alex Ferguson is in siege mode. The manager of soccer club Manchester United has been so stung by widespread criticism of his actions this week that he claims the sole person not to have commented is Barack Obama -- and that's only because he's busy trying to stop the U.S. economy falling over a fiscal cliff.

Ferguson, who recently gave a talk on his management techniques at Harvard, has been under fire following a verbal exchange with referee Mike Dean and his assistants during Wednesday's controversial 4-3 win over Newcastle.

It led to Newcastle manager Alan Pardew claiming that Ferguson should have been punished for his protests over Dean's failure to disallow Jonny Evans' own-goal for what he believed to be offside.

The Scot was furious that Dean overruled his assistant, Jake Collin, who had flagged to give Papiss Cisse offside before Evans diverted the ball into his own net.