Manchester United’s Darren Fletcher has been slapped with a three-match ban for his recent pitch-side behaviours.
Fletcher joined United’s Under-18 side back in 2000 from Scottish side Tynecastle FC.
A year later, the Scotland international was promoted to the senior squad, starting his 14 years with the first-team.
During this time, Fletcher made 342 appearances for the club, with 24 goals and 31 assists.
He was a part of the squad which won five Premier League titles, four Community Shields, three English League Cups, an FA Cup and a Champions League trophy.
Before hanging up his boots in 2020, the former midfielder had stints with West Brom and Stoke City, ultimately finding himself without a club.
However, within a year of retiring from playing, Fletcher got into coaching, taking a role with the United youth team as assistant manager.
Six months later and the former Red Devil was promoted to the senior squad as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s assistant.
Only three months later, Fletcher found himself taking on the role of technical director, which he held for three years.
However, with Jason Wilcox joining the club in the technical director post, Fletcher joined Erik ten Hag’s coaching team, remaining in post under Ruud van Nistelrooy and now Ruben Amorim.
Darren Fletcher handed match ban
Despite dodging the axe with Amorim bringing in his own backroom staff, Fletch isn’t out of the woods after he was handed a three-match ban.
The incident happened against Brentford back in October at Old Trafford.
Although United won 2-1, the United coaches we furious at Matthijs de Ligt being forced off the pitch to receive treatment to a head wound. The treatment wasn’t the issue. it was that Brentford went on to score with United being down to 10 men, almost being penalised for the injury.
The Red Devils were fuming at the decision and for the way the match continued allowing for the goal to be scored.
However, Fletcher’s reaction landed him in extremely how water, directing his anger at the referee, Samuel Barrott and fourth official Gavin Ward whilst heading down the tunnel at half-time.
The Daily Mail have now revealed the extent of his actions, resulting in his ban and £7,500 fine for misconduct.
The findings of the Independent Regulatory Commission
Ward recounted the events for the Independent Regulatory Commission, saying: “Following the half time whistle and as I made my way up the tunnel, I was approached by Darren Fletcher of Manchester United in an extremely aggressive manner pointing and shouting at me ‘you are all f***ing shit, that is a f***ing joke, every f***ing week.”
He continued: “I asked him to calm down and highlighted that his behaviour was completely unacceptable at this point.
“He then needed to be held back by another member of staff, as he tried to get closer to me. With this, I turned away and continued to make my way to the match officials changing room.
“Once in the changing room and when the other match officials arrived, I made them aware of the conduct of Mr Fletcher.”
The Commission viewed video evidence of the events, stating Fletcher had become ‘”agitated and starts to remonstrate with the Fourth Official, gesturing with his hands, shouting, and attempting to get closer to the Fourth Official in a confrontational manner. He is then held back and pushed away by a Manchester United colleague.”
Whilst the footage was without sound, the panel commented: “it showed Fletcher ‘acting in a manner that we consider to be aggressive.”
Fletcher has apologised for the incident, blaming the goal situation for his frustration. He also commented that he did not intend the anger to be towards the referees, however towards “the process for managing medical treatment of the particular football player in this matter and in reference to an incident in a previous home game where at a similar stage of the game a red card was incorrectly issued to a Manchester United player.”
CLICK HERE TO JOIN THE CENTRE DEVILS WHATSAPP GROUP CHAT NOW!
