Doping Agency 'want to increase Rio ban'

A leading official from the World Anti-Doping Agency maintains they will seek to have Rio Ferdinand’s ban for missing a drugs test increased.

The Manchester United defender is considering whether to appeal against the eight-month suspension imposed by Football Association, set to begin on January 20, after he failed to attend a random test at the club’s Carrington training ground on September 23.

WADA chairman Dick Pound has already a fierce attack on FIFA’s apparent reluctance to sign up to a worldwide code on drugs.

Now Denmark’s sports minister Brian Mikkelson, a member of the WADA executive committee, has called for Ferdinand’s case to be examined by the Court of Arbitration in Sport, in Switzerland, and for the England international’s ban to be lengthened.

“It is a solid case and our goal would be to raise Ferdinand’s ban to two years,” Mikkeleson said in the Daily Express.

“His sentence is too mild. The same rules that apply in other sports should also apply in football.

“I am going to contact the other members of WADA and we will make sure the case goes all the way to the Court of Arbitration in Sport.”