Moyes awaits FA disciplinary action after accepting misconduct charge

Manchester United manager David Moyes has accepted a charge of misconduct following comments about match officials, the Football Association has confirmed.

Moyes will now face a fine or a warning following a disciplinary hearing, which will take place in due course and he has chosen not to attend.

Moyes was charged after speaking out in the aftermath of his side’s Capital One Cup semi-final first leg loss at Sunderland last week.

The Scot said United “were playing referees as well as the opposition” after a number of decisions went against his side in the 2-1 defeat at the Stadium of Light.

Moyes suggested his side had endured a run of bad decisions, a situation he described as “terrible” and that they were “actually beginning to laugh” at.

At Sunderland, Moyes was particularly irritated by referee Andre Marriner’s award of a free-kick — which United failed to defend and from which they conceded an own goal — and what proved the match-winning penalty to Sunderland.

The FA charged Moyes on the grounds that his remarks “allegedly called into question the integrity of the match officials appointed to that fixture and/or appointed to Manchester United fixtures generally, and/or implied that such match officials are motivated by bias; and/or brought the game into disrepute, in contravention of Rule E3(1).”

The matter comes a week after Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers was fined £8,000 (€) by the FA for questioning the appointment of referee Lee Mason to his side’s St Stephen’s Day game at Manchester City.

Moyes has been busy away from Manchester this week as he continues scouting new talent for the Red Devils.

On Tuesday he was in France, watching Paris St Germain beat Bordeaux 3-1 in the French Cup. PSG’s French midfielder Blaise Matuidi, 26, out of contract at the end of the season, was believed to be on Moyes’ radar.

The Scotsman was in Turin on Sunday as he watched Serie A leaders Juventus beat Cagliari 4-1. Potential targets he may have been scouting at Juventus Stadium include defender Davide Astori, Claudio Marchisio, former United man Paul Pogba, and Arturo Vidal.