Sir Alex Ferguson said the idea that he influenced referees was "laughable" after Mark Halsey revealed he was in the habit of texting the former Manchester United manager.

The now United director told the club's website: "This is a guy [me] who has the worst record of any manager in the history of English football, fined around a hundred thousand pounds by them, suspended so many times … that's some influence, I must say."

Ferguson said of Halsey, who has now retired but had fought a battle against cancer in order to prolong his refereeing career: "Most of the managers, particularly in the north-west, supported [him], and a lot of players by the way, when he had the cancer, him and his wife, it was a terrible period for the lad and quite rightly the football fraternity got behind him and supported him.

"We gave him jersey after jersey for the dinners he was having and of course a Manchester United strip figures greatly in these auctions, a signed strip from all the players."

In a passage from Halsey's book Added Time the former referee describes how he rallied support for his colleague Mark Clattenburg after the Chelsea midfielder John Obi Mikel thought the official had called him a "monkey" during a match against Manchester United. Clattenburg was later cleared by the FA.

"I took matters in my own hands and rang Sir Alex asking him to speak out," Halsey says. "He agreed and used his Friday press conference to say he could not conceive of Mark saying such things. It helped the situation a great deal.

"It took time to gain Sir Alex Ferguson's respect but in the end we had a very good relationship. One thing should be made clear about my relationship with Sir Alex. I may have spoken to him a lot and shared texts but he knew when I crossed that white line there were no favours. Players and managers would not respect you if you gave decisions based on friendship."