23 Jan 2014

‘Sir Alex please’: listen to drunk Man U fan dial 999

A drunk Manchester United fan calls 999, demanding to speak to Sir Alex Ferguson moments after the football side were knocked out of the league cup.

Sir Alex Ferguson (Getty)

Greater Manchester Police received the emergency call at 10.30pm on Wednesday just after the final whistle, when United were knocked out of the Capital One Cup in dramatic fashion by Sunderland, who won 2-1 on penalties after extra time.

The fan, who was said to be “in a drunken state”, demanded to speak to the Red Devils’ former boss to discuss the result, a police spokesman confirmed.

Listen to the audio recording of the Manchester United fan call 999 below:

listen to ‘Could I speak to Sir Alex Ferguson please?’ on Audioboo
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In an audio file released by police (above), the 999 call handler can be heard asking: “Hello. You are through to the police. How can I help?”

Unidentified caller: “Could I speak to Sir Alex Ferguson please?”

“Not by a 999 line, I’m afraid. No.”

“Er… Sir Alex… The result is all wrong. They had extra time and it was a total and utter load of rubbish.”

“Sir, you’re actually on a 999 police line. Is there a crime you’d need to report to the police this evening?”

“Yeah, a crime. Yeah, I’ll report a crime.”

“And what crime is that?”

“The crime is that Manchester United, Manchester United were absolutely knackered.”

After asking for his name and home address, the call handler added: “OK, I’m going to clear the line now, OK?”

“Yeah, can you phone me back then? You must have my…?”

“No, I can’t phone you back because it’s not a police matter.”

“It is a police matter. Are you a policewoman?”

“No I’m not a policewoman. I’m a member of police staff. This is not a 999 matter.”

“A 999 matter. Oh, I see. Right. OK then, umm.”

“I’m going to go now. Goodbye.”

“Okay, bye, bye.”

Greater Manchester Police released a statement on Thursday morning on their GMP Manchester North Facebook page, which has so far generated more more than 7,000 “likes”:

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Post by GMP Manchester North.

Sir Alex managed Manchester United from 1986 until he retired in May last year, and was succeeded by David Moyes.

During his 26 years at the club, he won 38 trophies, including the European Cup, 13 Premier Leagues and two Uefa Champions League titles.

But his successor Moyes has had a difficult start to life at Old Trafford. Manchester United are seventh in the Premier League and out of the FA cup and league cup.

Channel 4 News digs out a few classic cases of when phone calls can go horribly wrong:

More than 20,000 people listened to a recording of a Welsh man complaining to a supermarket call centre worker than he has been left without dinner because he has been sold a plain pizza base.

An eight-year-old calls an Ireland demolition companies to see what it would cost to demolish her school and sends office workers into a fit of giggles.

A Wisconsin woman calls 911 to report an unlikely drunk driver – herself. Mary Strey, 49, of Granton, Wisc, called police to report that: “Somebody’s really drunk driving down Granton Road.”

Not a phone call but still funny. Russian police could hardly control their laughter when a drunk driver attempted to make phone calls with a pack of cigarettes.