West Ham manager Sam Allardyce has requested a personal hearing after denying a FA misconduct charge. The hammers boss was faced with the charge due to his controversial comments after his side’s match at Old Trafford.
During the FA Cup replay between Manchester United and West Ham, the home side were awarded a penalty for handball by referee Phil Dowd, who had earlier denied the Hammers a penalty of their own when the ball struck Rafael’s arm inside the box. Allardyce reacted angrily to the incidents and let his dissatisfaction be known to the media after the match. Speaking to ITV in a post-match interview, the Hammer’s manager said “There’s no doubt about the difference between Rafael’s handball and Jordan Spence’s. Spence plays for West Ham and the away team, while Rafael plays for the home side at Old Trafford. You see it time and time again at Old Trafford.”
It didn’t stop there for the furious manager as he continued later in the press conference “He couldn’t find the courage to give it unfortunately, and he then went down the other end and there was a very similar incident with Jordan Spence and it was given. That is a very big disappointment for me – the lack of consistency in that area. I think you have to have courage to play here and to referee here. But why are you a professional referee or player? To come to these places to do your job, and do it to the best of your ability. Phil Dowd is a hugely-experienced referee and one of the top ones in this country, but today I have to say he did get it wrong.”
Allardyce was given until this afternoon to respond to the misconduct charge, and the FA confirmed his denial in a statement, ”It is alleged Allardyce questioned the integrity of the match referee and/or match officials in general, and/or implied that the match referee and/or match officials in general were motivated by bias; and/or brought the game into disrepute.
“Allardyce has requested a personal hearing, the date of which will be set in due course.”
