Rodgers charged for ref rant

London - Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers was charged by the Football Association on Friday for allegedly questioning the integrity of referee Lee Mason in his side's 2-1 defeat against Manchester City.

Rodgers asked whether it was correct to have an official from Greater Manchester in charge of the game after a series of decisions went against his team at Eastlands on December 26.

As a result Rodgers has been landed with an FA charge to which he has until 1800GMT on Wednesday to respond.

"Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers has been charged by The FA over post-match media comments he made following his side's game against Manchester City on 26 December 2013," the FA said in a statement.

"It is alleged the comments by Rodgers called into question the integrity of the match referee, and/or implied that the match referee was motivated by bias; and/or brought the game into disrepute; and/or amounted to a failure to act in the best interests of the game."

Rodgers was particularly angry at the decision to disallow a Raheem Sterling goal for offside, despite the player being at least two yards behind the last defender.

"I thought they were horrendous in terms of performance," he said of the officials at the time.

"I thought it was throughout the evening. Hopefully we don't have another Greater Manchester referee again on a Liverpool-Manchester game.

"I was surprised we are playing in Manchester and have a referee from Greater Manchester.

"I am sure we won't get (for) Liverpool-Man City someone from the Wirral."

The day after the game Rodgers insisted he was trying to make a valid point and did not intend to slight Mason.

"In terms of geography, I certainly wasn't questioning the integrity of referees," he said.

"It was more than logical (as a comment) in terms of having a referee from that part of the world refereeing a game in Manchester."