Rio seeks personal hearing from FA
“We said at the time the charge was announced that Rio would be seeking a personal hearing and that has not changed,” said a United spokeswoman Ferdinand was charged with a breach of the FA’s doping regulations on October 29 and given two weeks to respond That first deadline expires today but no sanctions will be announced until the personal hearing has been held. The FA has already been criticised by FIFA president Sepp Blatter and World Anti-Doping Agency chairman Dick Pound over the length of time it has taken to deal with the case.
Ferdinand will seek to explain at a personal hearing why he left United’s training ground on September 23 when UK Sport’s doping control officers were waiting for him to provide a urine sample.
The FA judged his actions sufficiently serious to suspend the player from international matches pending the outcome of the disciplinary procedures but Ferdinand has been allowed to play on for his club.
United are supporting Ferdinand’s claim that he simply forgot about the test, partly because he was preoccupied with moving house.
That claim appeared to be undermined by the subsequent emergence of pictures of the player shopping in Manchester city centre on the day of the missed test/house-moving.
The severity of any sanction imposed on Ferdinand is likely to hinge on whether he can show, with the help of his mobile phone records, that he was not contactable immediately after leaving the training ground and so could not be summoned back to take the test that day.
British newspapers which claim to have obtained details of Ferdinand’s phone records have reported that his mobile was switched on all afternoon and that his first communication after leaving the training ground was a text message to his private doctor, who had been treating him for a kidney infection.
Ferdinand, 24, maintains he has never used performance enhancing or recreational drugs.
A test which he took within 36 hours of the one he missed proved negative although that is unlikely to have much bearing on the final outcome. The delay would have been long enough to allow a number of banned substances to be eliminated from the body.
The FA will also have to take into account the fact that Ferdinand has already suffered a degree of punishment after being forced to miss England’s final Euro 2004 qualifier against Turkey in Istanbul last month.
His exclusion from the squad enraged his international team-mates, who briefly threatened to boycott the match over what they saw as conviction without trial.The FA announced the action they were planning to take against the 25-year-old on Wednesday, October 29. But, because their letter outlining the charges did not arrive at Old Trafford until the following morning, Ferdinand’s 14 days to reply run until 5pm today (Thurs) - not yesterday, as previously thought.
When the charge was made, a United statement read: “Rio Ferdinand will be responding to the charge and seeking a personal hearing.”
On a more positive note, English football is set to fall into line with FIFA rules which require players who are sent off to be automatically banned for the next game in the same competition.
Until now, the English FA has been reluctant to give up a system under which bans do not come into force for two weeks and can be delayed further if a club appeals. But, following a warning from Sepp Blatter earlier this week, an FA spokesman confirmed yesterday that English football was likely to come into line with the rest of the world next season.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
