Fergie ends his rift with Ferdinand

Alex Ferguson has moved to end a rift with centre-back Rio Ferdinand over the player’s decision not to wear a Kick It Out T-shirt before Saturday’s match against Stoke, despite the expressed wishes of his manager.

Ferguson was initially furious at Ferdinand’s decision to make a unilateral stand on the issue — the centre-back is said to be angry at the campaign’s lack of teeth after John Terry was banned for only four matches for racially abusing his brother Anton — but the pair have since held talks to clear the air.

Ferguson said: “We have resolved the situation, there are no lingering problems and we move on, that is the end of the matter. We will carry on with the football side of it.”

The problem arose when Ferguson stated in his pre-match press conference he expected his players to wear the T-shirts, in support of football’s anti-racism campaign, having not consulted Ferdinand in advance.

He added: “The issue is pretty simple. I spoke to Rio. I think there was a communication problem. I think he felt I should have spoken to him on Friday. I didn’t anticipate there would be any problem in the dressing room as far as the T-shirt was concerned.

“My advice to him is I always think the union is stronger than any individual and it is important he airs his grievances to the right people, through the PFA or the FA. It has been a communication problem rather than anything else. Obviously as the manager of the club when you lay down policy you don’t want to see it being ignored and that’s where my anger came on Saturday.”

Ferdinand will not play against Braga in the Champions League tonight but Ferguson was anxious to insist he is not being dropped, adding: “Tomorrow, so your false teeth don’t fall out, I am not playing Rio. We have a game on Sunday at Chelsea, I think that’s a big one for us, and we will leave two of the older players out, Rio and Patrice Evra. That will be the two main changes tomorrow.”

Ferdinand is out of contract at the end of the season but Ferguson appeared genuinely surprised when asked if he would be offered an extension to keep him at the club.

He said: “We have always adopted that policy of offering one-year contracts and also at 33, I think Rio can play for two or three years. He has different issues from Paul or Ryan in terms of injuries over the last couple of years. He is not as quick as he was but that is not a big problem for me. His experience is important. He is still a great footballer and there is no reason he can’t stay on. We will see as the season progresses.”