“Managers get sacked because of things like that and he’s going to referee a game next week,” said Ferguson yesterday.

“He (Hackett) is not doing his job properly and he needs to be assessed.

“I’m assessed as a manager, players are assessed, referees should be assessed properly by the right people. That performance should not be accepted by our game.”

A spokesman for the FA said: “We are aware of the comments and will be giving them consideration.”

Should any action be taken against Ferguson and he is found guilty he would be fined rather receive a touchline ban.

United were aggrieved that Atkinson failed to give a penalty for Sylvain Distin’s challenge on Cristiano Ronaldo.

But Portsmouth boss Harry Redknapp said: “I didn’t think it [Distin on Ronaldo] was a penalty. I don’t think we made a bad tackle during the game.

“There was only one bad tackle – and that was made by a Manchester United player (Wayne Rooney was booked for a feet off the ground lunge at Niko Kranjcar).

“I thought he [the referee] got it bang on. If it was a penalty I would be the first to say ’we got away with that one’.

“I think Ronaldo pushed it too far and I didn’t see anything wrong with the challenge.

“Our penalty (Tomasz Kuszczak bringing down Milan Baros) was a banker penalty.”