SO now you'd better believe it - there is one law for United and another for the rest of the country after all!

Trafford Council has repeated its threat to close parts of Old Trafford if fans continue to stand during matches.

At Tuesday's Champions League match manager Sir Alex Ferguson appealed again over the tannoy and in the programme for spectators to stay seated.

This is all well and good, but armchair fans who tuned into the Leeds match the following evening would have choked into their cans of beer when home spectators chanted: "Are you watching Manchester?"

For throughout the stirring encounter with Deportivo La Coruna, the majority of fans in the Elland Road areas within camera vision remained standing.

I'm also told that fans at Anfield, especially on the Kop, regularly stand for most of a game.

How can it be safe to stand in Leeds and Liverpool, but not in Manchester?

The official line at Old Trafford, in the face of the warnings from the local council, is that you may leap up and down in moments of great excitement, but must remain seated for the remainder of the match.

Ironically United were playing a German side on Tuesday. Certain grounds in that country have been easily adapted to allow standing in certain sections with removable seats and crash barriers on every row.

No injuries or incidents have yet to be reported.

These are in place for domestic fixtures and then converted to form all-seater sections to abide by UEFA rules for European competitions.

Surely this common sense reasoning could be introduced here.

Or is there really one law for United, after all?