Manchester United have asked Uefa to consider whether the Italian referee Roberto Rosetti erred with the red card that will suspend Darren Fletcher from their Champions League final against Barcelona on 27 May.
United submitted a report to European football's governing body yesterday in a final attempt to overturn the midfielder's controversial dismissal against Arsenal in the semi-final second leg. The move follows advice given to Sir Alex Ferguson by the Uefa general secretary, David Taylor, as they left the Emirates stadium together on Tuesday night and represents their only chance of freeing Fletcher to play in Rome. The report does not urge the organisation to consider Fletcher's case on compassionate grounds, contrary to reports.
The Old Trafford club accept there are no formal grounds to appeal the 25-year-old's dismissal, given for a professional foul on Cesc Fábregas when replays showed the Scotland international had played the ball first, and their faint hope of overturning the decision has not been helped by the controversy surrounding Tom Henning Ovrebo's subsequent performance in the Chelsea-Barcelona tie at Stamford Bridge. The Norwegian referee has been hounded since refusing Chelsea four penalty appeals and Uefa may not be inclined to accept that both their appointments for the semi-finals were culpable of major mistakes.
United, nevertheless, are duty-bound to pursue Fletcher's case and their report outlines the club's version of the challenge on Fábregas and asks Uefa whether it believes Rosetti made the correct call. "The ref may take the view a mistake has been made and include that in his report but that wouldn't be in any way decisive," said Taylor. "It's an entirely discretionary thing, whether or not the [disciplinary] committee feels there is reason to intervene. That's the position. Strictly speaking there's no appeal process but representation can be made and looked at."
The Uefa general secretary added: "I have spoken with Alex Ferguson personally on this – as fate would have it we shared a car after the match. We were rather thrown together but had an interesting discussion. I tried to give Alex as much advice as I could with regards to the procedure in these circumstances."
