Wayne Rooney and Manchester United Gifted Point by Ref's Deference to Star Power

The point Manchester United left Cardiff City with from their 2-2 draw was gift-wrapped and sealed with a kiss by match referee Neil Swarbrick.

Per the ESPNFC.com match report, "Wayne Rooney...should have seen red for lashing out at Jordon Mutch" in the early going at Cardiff City Stadium.

United were surely disappointed with the outcome insofar as they conceded the equalizer in second-half stoppage time due in large part to a blown assignment from Patrice Evra on a corner kick.

But in all fairness, United were flattered by the result because the Red Devils should have been playing with 10 men—and without Rooney, no less—for nearly 90 minutes.

Again per the ESPNFC.com match report: "(The draw) could arguably have been even worse for the defending Barclays Premier League champions had Rooney been sent off, as he ought to have been, by referee Neil Swarbrick in the eighth minute."

There is nothing new under the sun where preferential treatment to superstars goes. Premier League fans do not buy tickets to the grounds or tune in to the telecast to watch Jordon Mutch.

Rooney is the draw. And as such, he is apt to receive the more-than-occasional benefit of the doubt.

Further, Rooney does not play for Everton, or Southampton, or Cardiff City. He plays for Manchester United, a glamour outfit in a league driven by big money and big names of players and clubs alike.

It used to be said that former United manager Sir Alex Ferguson hectored and badgered officials to devastating effect, particularly at Old Trafford.

But Fergie had nothing to do with what happened this time. It was the inbred tendency of officials to protect the prominent sides and headline-creating players from their own malfeasance that saved Rooney and United.

In this instance, though, Swarbrick's benevolence went too far. Just as making an over-reactive call can decide an outcome, so can looking the other way and not making a correct call.

Swarbrick's choice to keep Rooney in the game despite his obvious scything of Mutch in the eighth minute directly led to United's two goals.

Rooney himself scored in the 15th minute, seeing his good fortune compounded by an ordinary strike taking a favorable deflection into Cardiff's goal.

Then, in the 45th minute, it was Rooney's corner kick that found Evra's crown. Evra nodded home United's second, and last, goal.

It was perhaps fitting that, after Cardiff City equalized in second-half stoppage time, Rooney positively bungled a two-on-one breakaway with Danny Welbeck and thereby cost United two points.

Cheater's proof and all that.

Still, Rooney and United were beyond lucky to take what they did from this match. For that matter, Rooney also escaped the suspension that the straight red card would have brought him.

As if a side like United needs any more advantages.