Football: Soccer-Sheff Utd boss Wilder in FA pickle over sandwich rant

LONDON (Reuters) – Sheffield United manager Chris Wilder has been charged with improper conduct by the Football Association for a rant against match officials which included calling them disrespectful for eating a sandwich in front of him.

Wilder was upset with decisions during his side’s 3-2 defeat by Crystal Palace last month and described the referee Tony Harrington’s performance as ridiculous.

When addressing media he also intimated that officials were more likely to give decisions against the Yorkshire club.

The FA said Wilder has been charged with a breach of Rule E3.1 in relation to his post-match comments.

“It’s alleged that the manager’s comments constitute improper conduct in that they imply bias/or attack the integrity of the referee, or referees generally,” the FA said in a statement on Wednesday.

Wilder’s anger was sparked after his goalkeeper Ivo Grbic was forced off with concussion after a collision with Palace’s Jean-Philippe Mateta who did not receive a yellow card.

“It’s yet another ridiculous performance from the referee. I was told by a Premier League referee, who’s as honest as the day is long, ‘Get ready, because every tight decision will go against you, every 50-50 will go against you'”, Wilder said in his post-match press conference.

“Their boy takes our keeper out, we had to change keepers. It makes no odds if it’s an accident or not, it’s a yellow card. Every tight decision goes against us.

“I’m not looking back over the last ten games, it’s over a longer period, before I was here as well. Maybe the thought process is that, ‘They won’t be long in this division and I might be refereeing the other team next year, so I don’t want to upset too many people.'”

Wilder also said that when he went to confront the officials after the game, an assistant referee was eating a sandwich.

“But I’m not just going to go under the radar and not say anything. I’ve been to see the referee and I’ve told him that,” Wilder said at the time. “One of his assistants was eating a sandwich which I thought that was a complete lack of respect.

“Hopefully he enjoyed his sandwich while he was talking to a Premier League manager.”

Wilder has until Feb. 16 to respond to the charge.

(Reporting by Martyn Herman; Editing by Christian Radnedge)