United should have banned Ferdinand

THE cold chill that appears to hover over Old Trafford has nothing to do with the seasonal bad weather, more to do with the mindset of the manager.

Alex Ferguson can, if he chooses, take a benign view of his demonisation in the media because of his lofty perch on top of the Premiership. “No worries” might well be his cant as United take an overview of the competition.

He can take comfort in the knowledge that United have seldom played to their full potential this season - the best is yet to come.

It is feasible that the current flood of criticism that is directed towards Old Trafford suits the manager; the siege mentality he has fostered has been very productive.

But surely they must see and accept that their stance in the wake of Rio Ferdinand’s ban is counter-productive.

The drugs-in-sport issue is so insidious, so dangerous, that the most high-profile people in sport must be seen to be pro-active in fighting it.

The Ferdinand case has been mishandled from day one. It is scandalous that an offence that was committed on September 23 should not have been dealt with until last week.

And outrageous that the penalty will not kick in until January 12.

United could and should have helped Ferdinand by immediately throwing their hands up and pleading guilty. They would have served him better by imposing a club ban on him in September.

Once he missed the test some form of punishment had to follow. It would have been much more responsible of them had they accepted this and acted accordingly.

Instead, United carried on as if blissfully unaware of any negative reaction to their stand. In consequence they succeeded spectacularly in alienating all rational opinion.

Their attempts to avoid any disciplinary penalty only served to delay a final hearing of the case and afforded too many the opportunity to publicly voice their concerns and criticisms.

FIFA president, Sepp Blatter was one of those and much criticism has been made of his intervention. He had no option but to go on record when he was subjected to a cross-examination on the subject by members of the British press at a conference in Frankfurt on December 4.

The conference was called to deal with the World Cup draw but media representatives from England seized the opportunity to bring up the case of Ferdinand.

The brief question and answer series that followed was enlightening from several points of view.

Most enlightening was the admission by Blatter that he had changed his stance on the drugs issue. “The situation has changed,” he said.

“I was wrong when I said doping was not an issue in our sport - it is an issue.”

Underlying this case is the battle for control of football between the major clubs and the sport’s governing bodies - the national associations, UEFA and FIFA.

It is only a couple of years since Blatter triumphantly announced an agreement between FIFA/UEFA and the major clubs in Europe, the G14 group that includes United, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and the rest.

He lauded the clubs for their positive attitude in helping to put in place an international calendar of fixtures that set aside specific ten-day periods for international match activity.

He admitted in Frankfurt, however, that relations with the G14 clubs were not as harmonious after the officials of all three groups had met some weeks previously.

The clubs had attempted to argue that FIFA should pay the wages and cover the insurance of players when they are on international duty.

Blatter said they had given the clubs a blank refusal to treat the proposal seriously and instead had referred them to their national associations - a suggestion that was not, you can be sure, of any comfort to those associations.

The United reaction to the Ferdinand ban is just another example of a major club trying to undermine the authority and the responsibility of one of the governing bodies of the sport.

Their threat to take the case to the civil court if the result of their appeal is not to their satisfaction is indicative of the arrogance and selfishness that underpin the establishment of the G14 of clubs in the first place.

What they fail to see, or refuse to acknowledge, is that a firm line on the drugs issue is in everybody’s interest.

They would serve their sport more effectively if they were to follow the example of other disciplines with more experience of dealing with this threat - athletics, for example, where Ferdinand would be facing a two-year ban if he had to answer to the IAAF.

Frosty would not begin to describe the atmosphere around Old Trafford if that were the case.