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Manchester City executive Patrick Vieira says title rivals Manchester United benefit from preferential treatment from referees.
His comments come two days after visitors Fulham were controversially denied a late penalty in their 1-0 defeat at Old Trafford.
The result left United three points clear at the top of the league.
"When United play at home they get some advantage that other teams don't get," Vieira told BBC Sport.
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“
When United play at home they get some advantage that other teams don't get
”
Patrick Vieira
"I think when you go to United, Madrid, Barcelona, or Milan, when the referees referee these kind of games, it's always difficult to go against these kind of teams.
"This is the way it is.
"It's something the teams who are used to winning get all the time, so we need to win games so we have this advantage in the future."
With eight games left, City find themselves three points behind United, but Vieira - who took up a post as football development executive at Eastlands after retiring from playing - believes they would be worthy champions.
Speaking at the Soccerex conference in Manchester, Vieira said: "This is our moment.
"Since the start of the season we've been the best team and played the best football.
"I believe the club deserves it."
However, Vieira also admitted that United are in pole position to claim a second successive title.
"When you are first you have the advantage, they are favourites" he said

Vieira recently said that United's decision to bring Paul Scholes out of retirement was a sign of weakness.
In response, Sir Alex Ferguson accused City of an act of desperation when allowing Carlos Tevez to play despite going on strike.
Vieira said: "We're glad Carlos is back. The quality of these kind of players will be really important at this stage of the season.
"The issue was between him and the club. The players were really pleased to see him back.
"Its important not to lose focus, so many things can happen.
"People try to build this fire between the clubs. The heat is going to get more and more."

Sister of fu wrote:I do wish everyone would just shut the fuk up and play football. Its getting a bit like kids in a playground and its boring. I would rather Paddy come out and explain what has gone on with our away form instead of bitch about refs, it make us look bitter.

BobbyJ1956 wrote:

Sister of fu wrote:I do wish everyone would just shut the fuk up and play football. Its getting a bit like kids in a playground and its boring. I would rather Paddy come out and explain what has gone on with our away form instead of bitch about refs, it make us look bitter.

Dead right. Great guy, Patrick, but he should keep off the sour grapes and ask why City didn't beat Everton, Swansea, and Stoke. Nine points there instead of one and City would have this championship sewn up.

Mikhail Chigorin wrote:

BobbyJ1956 wrote:

Sister of fu wrote:I do wish everyone would just shut the fuk up and play football. Its getting a bit like kids in a playground and its boring. I would rather Paddy come out and explain what has gone on with our away form instead of bitch about refs, it make us look bitter.

Dead right. Great guy, Patrick, but he should keep off the sour grapes and ask why City didn't beat Everton, Swansea, and Stoke. Nine points there instead of one and City would have this championship sewn up.

Our displays at Fulham, West Brom and Sunderland weren't exactly helpful either.

Sister of fu wrote:I do wish everyone would just shut the fuk up and play football. Its getting a bit like kids in a playground and its boring. I would rather Paddy come out and explain what has gone on with our away form instead of bitch about refs, it make us look bitter.

Mikhail Chigorin wrote:

BobbyJ1956 wrote:

Sister of fu wrote:I do wish everyone would just shut the fuk up and play football. Its getting a bit like kids in a playground and its boring. I would rather Paddy come out and explain what has gone on with our away form instead of bitch about refs, it make us look bitter.

Dead right. Great guy, Patrick, but he should keep off the sour grapes and ask why City didn't beat Everton, Swansea, and Stoke. Nine points there instead of one and City would have this championship sewn up.

Our displays at Fulham, West Brom and Sunderland weren't exactly helpful either.

CityGer wrote:

Sister of fu wrote:I do wish everyone would just shut the fuk up and play football. Its getting a bit like kids in a playground and its boring. I would rather Paddy come out and explain what has gone on with our away form instead of bitch about refs, it make us look bitter.

Agreed.

Also, what I find interesting is who is pulling the strings currently at the club and who is sanctioning him to make these comments. I can't accept that these are just off-the-cuff remarks. Seems planned to me. Maybe I'm reading too much in to it but it seems odd for a bloke in his position to be coming out with stuff like this.

Sister of fu wrote:This has now come out with Paddy claming its bollocks......

"Patrick Vieira has expressed his disappointment and anger at what he feels is a serious and cynical misrepresentation of an interview he gave to the BBC.


Manchester City’s Football Development Executive gave the interview at the annual SoccerEx exhibition at the GMEX Convention Centre on Wednesday afternoon. He was representing Football Against Hunger, a campaign to tackle starvation in Africa.

An interview given to the BBC’s Dan Roan contained what Patrick feels was a very leading line of questions regarding Manchester United supposedly receiving favourable treatment by referees. Patrick feels that his views have been deliberately taken out of context.

He said: “I am very angry with Dan Roan. I feel he has misrepresented me. I made it clear in the interview twice that I wanted to avoid criticising United and even stated that I didn’t watch the United game against Fulham and had not seen the incident to which the reporter referred.

“That part of the interview was ignored and my comments were taken completely out of context. I called the reporter twice to ask for a retraction and an apology which has not come. I feel Dan Roan and the BBC have shown a complete lack of respect for me, the ‘Football Against Hunger’ charity and Manchester City Football Club.”

Manchester City support Patrick in his strong feelings on this matter and have confirmed to the BBC that the reporter will now be banned from all Manchester City media activity.

Chief Communications Officer, Vicky Kloss, said: “Despite the Charity arranging the interview with Dan Roan for the purposes of promoting the Football Against Hunger campaign, the reporter pursued a leading and aggressive line of questioning, through which Patrick was very careful to tread a diplomatic path.

“A misrepresentative article by Dan Roan appeared on the BBC’s website a short time later which omitted significant comments of clarification and took the interview completely out of context. Manchester City promotes a positive and welcoming approach to media outlets, however it is felt, in the absence of any correction or apology that there is no option but to issue an immediate ban to Dan Roan from future media activity.”

Rag_hater wrote:I think Paddy should stop fucking around and share his evidence with us of aliens building the pyramids.