Whatever the reason be, but, one team whom Howard Webb would have benefitted the most by his decisions was Manchester United.
If there was ever a marginal moment on the ground in a United-match and it was Webb referring, you could have bet that the decision was not going in the favour of United’s opposition.
Webb though, through his first book which is set to hit the markets in a couple of days, has revealed a call he had taken against United behind the scenes and how it had angered United’s coach Ferguson.
It was the winters of 2009 when United was on its Fulham trip and had a match starting at 2 pm in the afternoon the next day which was assigned to Webb of course.
Because of the overnight icefall in the area, FA had a doubt over the ground condition, and for the purpose of having a check on that, Webb was sent, but, as Webb reached the ground, he saw the visiting manager present on the side-lines of the ground already.
Before Webb could start his inspection, Ferguson was into his years, saying that the ground condition couldn’t be any worse than that and putting players on it would mean playing with their lives.
But, Webb was well aware that Ferguson had left almost his entire first choice backline at home and would have to manufacture a defence somehow for that match and that is why he was trying to get the match scheduled on some other day.
So, without getting influenced by the legendary Scot, Webb went to check the ground himself and found it nowhere close to unsafe.
When he told Ferguson that he was okay with the ground and the match was on, Ferguson got mad angry, but, he had no choice other than playing.