Crerand’s radio rant after Rio is struck

Crerand reacted angrily to the suggestion that Red Devils defender Rio Ferdinand could have provoked Manchester City fans with his celebration of United’s winner in Sunday’s derby.

Ferdinand appeared to be hit by a coin following Robin van Persie’s late goal at the Etihad Stadium and City goalkeeper Joe Hart also had to prevent a supporter from confronting the United defender.

It was put to Crerand during an interview during BBC Radio Five Live’s Breakfast programme that listeners had called and texted the show to suggest that players should tone down their celebrations in front of opposition fans, but Crerand was disgusted by the insinuation that Ferdinand had any responsibility for the incident and repeatedly challenged the station to say how many people had blamed the United player.

‘‘Who said that? That is ridiculous,’’ Crerand said.

‘‘What planet do they live on? That is absolute garbage.

How many people have phoned you up? One, two, three? How many? Why make a statement like that if you haven’t got [the number of listeners] to hand... if you haven’t got the evidence?’’ Asked to respond to the suggestion that Ferdinand could have provoked the attacks, Crerand added: ‘‘I think the point is absolutely ludicrous.’’ At one point Crerand asked interviewer Chris Warburton: ‘‘Is this a publicity stunt? Ask me a sensible question and don’t talk stupid, asking me daft questions about whether fans should celebrate or not.’’ Warburton’s co-presenter Rachel Burden interjected to suggest to Crerand that there may have been a misunderstanding of the question that had been asked.

Crerand demanded again to know how many people had contacted the show.

‘‘How many texts? A million?

Half a million? A hundred thousand?’’ Crerand added: ‘‘Rio Ferdinand was nowhere near where the home fans were. He gets struck by a coin that someone has thrown from about 15 or 20 yards, it wasn’t as if he was standing in front of their supporters jumping up and down.’’ After Burden asked Crerand a couple of questions, he said: ‘‘Why have you changed commentators, why have you come on all of a sudden?’’ Crerand was told it was standard for both presenters to contribute questions and Warburton said: ‘‘Don’t worry, I haven’t run scared Paddy.’’ Crerand later insisted he stood by what he had said in his radio interview.

He said the issue was with a coin being thrown, not the players’ reaction, and therefore he was not prepared to add fuel to what he considered was the wrong debate.

‘‘They (Five Live) were looking for something sensationalist, they weren’t looking for anything sensible,’’ he said.

‘‘They were interested in making it worse than it was.

‘‘They said they had received lots of calls from fans but they couldn’t say how many. One of them (Burden) was not even at the game, they didn’t even see it.’’ A spokesman for Five Live defended the line of questioning to Crerand.

‘‘We put to Paddy the fact that various listeners had contacted the station to make the point that footballers have a duty to behave responsibly at matches, and there was a lively exchange between Paddy and the Breakfast presenters Chris Warburton and Rachel Burden,’’ he said.

‘‘You can hear the interview on the Five Live website.’’