Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson is fuming over revelations emerging from Patrice Evra's recent ban.

The Daily Mail says Ferguson's disdain for the FA has been deepened yet further by learning that the man responsible for handing Patrice Evra a four-game ban recently is an Arsenal season-ticket holder.

Indeed, he is so furious at the news that Nicholas Stewart QC is a regular at the Emirates Stadium that he had planned to write about it in his programme notes for Sunday's home game with Chelsea, only to be persuaded otherwise by his chief executive David Gill.

Gill is also known to be irritated by the FA's decision to appoint Stewart as the chairman of the four-man independent panel that investigated France defender Evra's fight with Chelsea groundstaff last April but was keen to avoid another public spat with the governing body after clashing so angrily with Soho Square when the ban was handed down in December.

Ferguson did make brief reference to the issue in Sunday's notes when he wrote: "I am still shocked by the four-game ban handed out to Patrice following the incident at Stamford Bridge that saw him at odds with one of their groundsmen."

Nevertheless, it is understood that the original draft contained a much fiercer criticism of the panel until Gill intervened.