Fergie’ blast at Blatter

SIR Alex Ferguson has hit out at Sepp Blatter’s claim that Manchester United are treating Cristiano Ronaldo like a slave.

The FIFA president caused outrage with his comments, likening Ronaldo – who signed a five–year contract with United only 12 months ago – to a serf in feudal times.

Ronaldo agreed when quizzed about Blatter’s comments — but Ferguson takes a far different view.

He seems increasingly likely to stave off Real Madrid’s attempts to sign the 23–year–old and chose to admonish Blatter ahead of his side’s 2–1 pre–season friendly win over Portsmouth in Nigeria last night.

“It was an unfortunate statement from someone in such a position,” Ferguson told a pre–match press conference. Slavery was abolished many years ago.

“These days footballers can earn five or six million pounds a year. I don’t want to dignify this kind of statement with a response but when you consider the history of slavery, it was a very unfortunate statement.”

Ronaldo is not due back in action until October following a recent ankle operation but could return to United’s training HQ at Carrington at the end of next month to step up his recovery programme.




MANCHESTER City were beaten by an early goal by Jonathan Pitroipa at German Bundesliga club Hamburg where, despite losing 1-0, manager Mark Hughes was satisfied with his side’s display.