In the spirit of Orwellean surrealism, Alex Ferguson has decided to give another television outlet the BBC treatment. Just as he stopped speaking to the BBC in a fit of pique after Panorama took son to task, Manchester United's legendary boss is set to shun another outlet, their microphones left to pick up the breeze off the curmudgeonly Scot's stomping into the distance. Only this time, the organization is ... Manchester United, itself.
Alex Ferguson To Give MUTV The BBC Treatment, Refuses To Speak With In-House Television Station
Ferguson is now refusing to speak to Manchester United television (MUTV), according to reports, after the outlet aired the interview that contained his controversial comments about Martin Atkinson. Ferguson now faces an improper conduct change from the English FA, with a potential touchline ban awaiting the Scot after he implied Atkinson was neither a “fair” nor “strong” official.
While it seems nonsensical that Ferguson would hold MUTV accountable for his words - broadcast in an interview he had to know was on-record and for-distributio -, this is not the first time the United manager has refused to make himself available for the club’s media. As The Guardian regales in their report, a similar petulance had to be dealt with six years ago:
His cancelling of press conferences has become an increasingly regular occurrence over recent years, but the difference this time is that MUTV have been denied access to his thoughts. It is the first time Ferguson has refused to speak to them since 2005, when one of the presenters said he would prefer the team to operate a 4-4-2 system rather than 4-5-1 and the chief executive, David Gill, had to intervene after an incensed Ferguson withdrew all co-operation.
All of which creates a media operation Big Brother might have if the pig Napoleon were running it: We don’t use conventional media because we have our own, in-house outlet. But then we don’t talk to our in-house outlet. Why? Because they’re not cooperative enough, even though they’re just broadcasting what we say. Instead, our outlet should be broadcasting the things we mean to say, but don’t.
The logical conclusion to this: Manchester United will create a second, in-house television entity: Ferguson TV. While Mike Phelan talks to the BBC and MUTV, Alex Ferguson will be interviewed by son Jason after matches. The rest of the channel’s contents will be Ferguson-approved witticisms from press conferences’ past.
And one day Jason will say the wrong thing, and a third United television station will be born.
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