Jose offside with Barry accusation
Not likely, it's true.
Much more probable that Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho was right.
Much more likely that Ferguson was telling Barry exactly what he thought of his first-half refereeing performance.
'Chelsea were receiving all the 50-50 decisions, Louis Saha should have had a penalty, Barry was less use than an ashtray on a motorbike.' That sort of thing.
In fact, Ferguson probably went through his full repertoire of paranoia, no doubt falling just short of promising Barry a Glaswegian kiss if he didn't get his act together in the second-half.
Not particularly edifying, but not uncommon in the cut and thrust of a passionate football match and if the referee is prepared to listen to such debate then there is no FA law against it.
Where Mourinho was wrong was in intimating that Barry would have been influenced by Ferguson's chat.
"The referee controlled the game in one way during the first half but in the second they had dozens of free-kicks," said Mourinho. "It was fault after fault, dive after dive. But I know the referee did not walk to the dressing rooms alone at half-time.
"What I saw and heard and felt at half-time made it easier for me to understand a few things. Maybe when I turn 60 and have been managing in the same league for 20 years and have the respect of everybody I will have the power to speak to people and make them tremble a little bit."
That is a serious charge, one that goes to the core of the game's integrity. And that's why the FA were wrong not to censure Mourinho yesterday. The Chelsea manager's primary aim was no doubt to wind up Ferguson, but in doing so he was questioning Barry's neutrality.
He was saying Barry favoured United for the second 45 minutes directly on account of the chat with Ferguson.
True, he didn't use the 'cheat' word which cost Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger £15,000 last month but in effect that's what Mourinho was calling Barry, just as Wenger had accused Ruud van Nistelrooy.
Actually, Mourinho's allegation was more serious.
Much of the video evidence of Manchester United's so-called 'Battle of Old Trafford' could be said to have supported Wenger's view of Van Nistelrooy.
The Carling match statistics did the opposite for Mourinho. Barry actually awarded 10 free-kicks to Chelsea in the second-half of the semi-final and only nine to United.
So much for favouritism.
None of which is to say that Barry had a good game. Far from it. The Saha incident looked a penalty and Barry later gave a free-kick to Damien Duff for what was a blatant dive.
But then I don't recall Mourinho berating Mike Riley after that official's decision not to give a penalty to Liverpool for Tiago's blatant hand ball on New Year's Day.
The fact is referees come in all shapes and sizes. Some are extroverts like Graham Poll, appearing to delight in the celebrity which comes with being on television on a weekly basis. Others are more reserved.
Sometimes they converse willingly with players and managers and the sight of Riley explaining his 'Tiago decision' to an animated Jamie Carragher on New Year's Day was an example of the heated debate which is tolerated.
Sometimes referees get decisions wrong. Mostly they get them right.
But invariably they are honest decisions.
I don't believe there is one referee in the land who would be swayed by Ferguson or Mourinho any more than they'd take notes in seduction from John McCririck.
"We may be useless, but we're not cheats," former referee David Elleray famously once informed Arsenal captain Tony Adams.
Mourinho, whose cogent comments in general have been an invigorating addition to the Premiership this season, is intelligent enough to know that.
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