FA review Rio affair

The Football Association today announced they have begun a formal review of the Rio Ferdinand affair and made clear their intention to seek a retraction of some of the damaging criticism aimed at the organisation.

Ferdinand will have a personal interview with Steve Barrow, the head of the FA’s compliance unit, at a secret location tomorrow as a repercussion of the Manchester United defender missing a drugs test on September 23.

He is sure to be charged following the interview but the exact charge will determine the severity of his punishment if found guilty. There are two possible charges which come under the misconduct category – failure to attend an anti-doping test and wilful failure to attend an anti-doping test.

The second charge is a far more serious offence, would carry a definite ban and to be proved needs evidence of a deliberate attempt to avoid the drug testers.

At the same time, other officials in the FA will turn their attention to claims made about the Ferdinand affair last week. However, as peace talks have already taken place with Manchester United it is likely that Gordon Taylor, chief executive of the Professional Footballers Association (PFA) will be the man targeted.

FA marketing and communications director Paul Barber told the Press Association: “This has been a very difficult week for the FA and the England squad. A lot has been said and written and as you would expect the FA will be conducting a thorough review of all the issues including an analysis of what was said by whom and when.

“Clearly, the FA would expect any unsubstantiated or inaccurate statements made about its handling of a very difficult issue to be corrected by those concerned at the earliest possible opportunity.

“Quite rightly, the last 48 hours have been about the football and the FA have been keen to ensure that there was no further disruption to preparations for last night’s match.

“However, with the right result secured the FA will now commence its review of the last week’s issues immediately.”

The FA will only involve lawyers as a last resort – due to the cost as much as anything else – but are clearly furious at some of the remarks made about football’s governing body, especially claims that they revealed Ferdinand’s identity and breached confidentiality.

They also believe that some of the criticism contributed to the England players’ threat to boycott the Turkey match.

Manchester United chief executive David Gill has had two conversations with FA executives since Friday – one with Barber and the other with FA chief executive Mark Palios. The result of these has been to see peace break out between the parties.

The PFA are another matter however and Taylor is sticking to his guns – that by leaving Ferdinand out of the England squad they were effectively identifying him.

Taylor told the Press Association: “I am perfectly happy to stand by my comments – always have been and always will be.

“If we need to go to court to seek out the truth, that’s fine by me. I can defend the rights of my members and my right to protect them.

“I have a job to do to protect the rights of players under football law, but a court is a place where the proper and due process of law is maintained and the rights of individuals are protected.”

Taylor accused the FA of effectively allowing Ferdinand’s name to be released into the public domain, of “pre-judging” the case and of flouting their own procedures.

He still maintains that the FA were at fault as he added today: “Every party can speak for itself, but the very fact that he was going to be taken out of the England squad says it all.

“I see no reason why Rio or Manchester United should release his name. Certainly what was leaked was that he was not going to be in the England squad.”

Ferdinand, who claims he forgot about the test as he was moving house on that day, did eventually take – and pass – a test 36 hours later but that will not have any bearing on his interview or any subsequent disciplinary hearing.

Taylor will attend the interview as a PFA representative but he fears the player’s case has been compromised by all the publicity.

“We have a due process and we will go through that, but this case has been damaged by the breach of confidentiality,” insisted Taylor.