Fergie: Ronaldo no slave

The FIFA president caused outrage with his comments, likening Ronaldo - who only signed a five-year contract with United 12 months ago - to a forced labourer.

Ronaldo said he agreed with Blatter, but won little sympathy thanks to photographs of him on holiday with his girlfriend and at an awards ceremony in Los Angeles.

Ferguson, although restrained, made his opposition to Blatter's remark plain ahead of his side's 2-1 pre-season friendly win over Portsmouth in Nigeria.

"It was an unfortunate statement from someone in such a position," Ferguson said.

"Slavery was abolished many years ago. These days footballers can earn five or six million pounds a year.

"I do not want to dignify this kind of statement with a response but when you consider the history of slavery, it was a very unfortunate statement."

Ronaldo is not due back in action until October following a recent ankle operation but could return to United's training HQ at Carrington at the end of next month to step up his recovery programme.

Meanwhile, United took the honours in the first of three meetings in a month with Portsmouth.

Chris Eagles and Carlos Tevez did the damage for the English and European champions in the friendly against the FA Cup winners.

Both sides will expect improvement when they meet again in the Community Shield on August 10 and the Premier League two weeks after that.