Patrick Vieira has expressed his anger at BBC reporter Dan Roan over an interview in which the former midfielder is alleged to have suggested that Manchester United receive preferential treatment from referees.
The Frenchman, who is now Football Development Executive at Manchester City, was questioned after Fulham were denied a penalty during their 1-0 defeat at Old Trafford on Monday night.
Vieira has claimed that he was misrepresented by Roan during the annual SoccerEx exhibition in Manchester on Wednesday afternoon while he was representing Football Against Hunger. The club have since banned Roan from media engagements.
"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," Vieira said in a statement on City's official website.
"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."
The Blues also added in their own statement that Roan "pursued a leading and aggressive line of questioning" when he spoke to Vieira.
"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," said chief communications officer Vicky Kloss.
"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."
The former Arsenal captain recently described the return of Paul Scholes to the United squad as a sign of "weakness".
Jack Prescott
