Bastian Schweinsteiger charged by FA over Winston Reid clash

The FA has since released the following statement on their official website: “Bastian Schweinsteiger has been charged for an alleged act of violent conduct which was not seen by the match officials, but caught on video”.

United have until Thursday to inform the FA about whether they intend to appeal but their chances of overturning the decision look slim given that the governing body has already shown the incident to a panel of three former high-level referees.

“For an FA charge to follow the decision by the panel must be unanimous”.

If he is found guilty he will be hit with an automatic three match ban that would be a huge blow to United.

Schweinsteiger was prevented from speaking about the incident at United’s pre-match press conference in Wolfsburg on Monday evening.

“Winston Reid had a superb game at the back and all the defenders played their part in helping us to come away with an impressive clean sheet”, said Sullivan.

“It was a moment of madness and he deserved to be sent off, but it’s impossible for the ref to see everything”, added Bilic.

Both Reid and West Ham boss Slaven Bilic thought it was a sending off offence, but Bilic said the referee could be excused because it was hard to spot in the melee. ‘No matter how many referees you have, sometimes they can’t see.

Reid insisted on Saturday that the elbow was intentional. A straight red without any doubts.

Reid later claimed that the Germany star should have been sent off, saying: ‘It was a red card. He just didn’t see it.