Ferguson was also fined £30,000 by the FA for his attack at referee Martin Atkinson after United's 2-1 defeat at Chelsea earlier this month.

A United source told The Sun: "He believes he was just giving an honest appraisal of the referee's performance. He didn't mean to claim the referee was biased and corrected the reference to him being 'fair' in his after-match interview straight away.

"Having explained himself and defended his actions he is spitting mad that he has still received such a tough punishment."