LOUIS VAN GAAL said he would fight his FA charge after the Manchester United manager fell foul of the football authorities following his team’s goalless FA Cup draw at fourth-tier Cambridge last month.
The Dutchman was alleged to have made comments that suggested match referee Chris Foy had been biased in favour of the hosts in his handling of the initial fourth round tie, which Manchester United won 3-0 in the replay at Old Trafford on Tuesday.
But van Gaal was clearly shocked at the development and pointed to his past record throughout his managerial career as evidence of his innocence.
“I am not angry, I am very disappointed,” he told a news conference. “I am now for nearly 30 years a trainer-coach or manager and I have never been charged.
“And still, up to now, I don’t think that I said something wrong.
“I said already in our press conference, the same phrases, because I know in advance (of the tie) that everything is in favour of the underdog. You, as media, have confirmed that. It’s always like that.
I said it before the game and I said it after the game, only in the meaning of the general feeling of everybody, everybody is for the underdog. So I cannot imagine the FA has charged me. But, okay, it’s like that. Of course I will contest it. I never said anything wrong.
“You can confirm, as the media, that I never say anything about the referee, in all the matches I have played,” he added.
However, van Gaal stopped short of repeating the claim often made by one of his United predecessors, Alex Ferguson, — and one currently being cast around by Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho — that the FA has an agenda against his club.
Van Gaal joked: “If say that, then I am maybe rightly charged, so I don’t say it!”
