Sir Alex Ferguson will not be charged by the FA for suggesting that referee Howard Webb favoured Arsenal in last weekend's 2-2 draw with Manchester United at the Emirates Stadium.

Disciplinary chiefs have been studying Ferguson's remarks after calling for a transcript of an interview that appeared on United's in-house MUTV station.

But it is understood that officials at Soho Square decided there was not enough evidence to charge the United manager as it could not be proved that Ferguson was suggesting that Webb had been deliberately biased.

The FA have privately acknowledged for some time that Ferguson has a knack for taking his comments to the wire without quite crossing into actionable territory, reports the Daily Mail.