Darren Fletcher has revealed in an interview with Zoo magazine that Sir Alex Ferguson, together with three of Manchester Utd’s French players, placed bets on the European Championship qualifier between Scotland and France.

Man Utd’s Scottish midfielder told the magazine:, “He [Ferguson] was happy when Scotland beat France.  He won a bit of money because he was making bets with all the French lads – Patrice Evra, Louis Saha and Mikael Silvestre.

“They were looking at him like he was a bit crazy, so they took any bet.  But he had the last laugh ‘cos we managed to beat them twice!”

The FA bans players, coaches and officials from gambling on any match in which they are involved.  Therefore Alex Ferguson hasn’t done anything wrong.  However, Louis Saha is implicated as he played for France in the match at Hampden Park.  Patrice Evra didn’t play in the matches but was part of the French squad for the game at Hampden and a substitute in the game in Paris, so he too might be in breach of the FA’s rules.  Mikael Silvestre is more than likely to be found innocent as he didn’t feature in the French squad for either of the two qualifying games. 

The FA will carry out an investigation into these betting allegations and have contacted FIFA and UEFA about the matter.

This is a distraction that Man Utd doesn’t need at the moment; with the season coming to an end, they are on the verge of retaining the Premiership title and face an all-English Champions League final showdown against Chelsea.

An FA spokesman said: “We will take action against any participants in our leagues found to be in breach of our regulations, if it is proved they bet on a match that they were involved in or could potentially influence.

“In general terms, no one in the Premiership can make bets on games they are involved in, in any way.

“The comments in question seem to suggest that several Manchester United players made bets with Sir Alex Ferguson on an international match they were playing in, contravening those rules.”

The spokesman goes on to say: “It’s something we are going to have to look very closely at but we can only take action against players who break the rules of the matches and competitions under our jurisdiction.”

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