Keane has no case to answer - Ferguson

Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson has said the admission by his captain Roy Keane that he deliberately fouled Manchester City's Alf Inge Haaland last year were nothing to worry about.

Keane said in a newspaper serialisation of his new autobiography that he had targeted the Norwegian defender in April last year in revenge for a challenge three years earlier which had ruled the Irish international out for most of the 1997-8 season.

But Ferguson said he felt Keane did not have a case to answer.

"I don't think Roy has anything to worry about," Ferguson was quoted as saying in the Times newspaper. "I don't think there is a case to answer.

"We didn't complain when Haaland made comments about Roy throughout the last two years in the papers."

Ferguson said the club had vetted the book before it had been published.

"The books are not done with the club's consent but they do peruse it before it goes to the publishers," he added.

"The lawyers didn't think there were any problems. It's an honest book.

"(But) it's something they (the FA) will probably look at. I'm sure they will."

The English FA said the governing body were in no hurry to consider disciplinary action and would wait until the book was published so they could read the comments in their full context.

Since the incident, for which Keane was sent off, Haaland has suffered from knee ligaments problems and made just a handful of appearances for City.

Haaland, 29, refused to say if he was going to take legal action over the comments.

Haaland's club issued a statement on Tuesday expressing its concern at Keane's comments and indicating that City would be taking the matter up with the FA.