• Premier League

Rodgers charged by FA for Mason comments

Rodgers was furious after the Manchester City defeat © PA Photos

Enlarge

Brendan Rodgers has been charged by the FA over post-match media comments he made following his side's Liverpool's 2-1 defeat to Manchester City on Boxing Day.

A statement on the FA website read: "It is alleged the comments by Rodgers called into question the integrity of the match referee, and/or implied that the match referee was motivated by bias; and/or brought the game into disrepute; and/or amounted to a failure to act in the best interests of the game."

Rodgers had called the officials' performance "horrendous" and insisted that referee Lee Mason, from Bolton, lives too near City's Etihad Stadium to be given such a match.

He said in his post-match news conference: "I was very proud of the players, I thought they were absolutely outstanding. They had no help from the officials. I thought today they were horrendous in terms of performance. We had nothing that went our way at all.

"I thought we never got any decisions. The linesman on the offside one, he wasn't even on the same cut of grass. If you are working at this level, you have to get it right. It's not even a difficult one. It is a perfectly-timed run and he is given offside when he is through one-on-one on goal. They are big moments in big games.

"There is another incident when Luis [Suarez] doesn't get a free kick when Joleon Lescott comes through him and it is waved play on. It is arguable it is a penalty at the end. Hopefully we don't have a Greater Manchester referee again on a Liverpool-Manchester City [game]."

Rodgers has until 6pm on January 8 to respond to the charge.

Download ESPN's new UK sport app, a fresh and powerful new way to follow your favourite UK sports news, scores and video.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd