UR TV CAST

Mr Taylor has threatened to boycott the tests if a player is “named and shamed” again.Sven Goran Eriksson, who wrote to the tribunal in support of Ferdinand, said yesterday: “With regard to Rio, I am sorry for him. “We will have to seriously consider our co-operation with them over a range of issues. “I think the club would support him.”Relations between the FA and the players are already strained over the Ferdinand affair. In October the England team threatened to strike after the defender was dropped from the England squad because of the charge.The players claimed the decision to drop Ferdinand from the squad had, in effect “named and shamed” him.”The governing body appears to be operating in a vacuum,” Mr Taylor said. The head of the footballer’s union yesterday threatened to sever relations with the Football Association, the sports governing body, after the eight-month ban handed out to the England and Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand for missing a drugs test.
“Our relationship with the FA is in danger of breaking down completely,” said Gordon Taylor, chief executive of the Professional Footballers’ Association.The FA will face a legal challenge from Manchester United, which paid £30m for the player in 2002, if an appeal is turned down.”He may have to go to court and he has a right to, to protect his reputation,” the Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson said. In an age of greater transparency it is reasonable to demand better access and explanation than a three-line announcement of guilt.

Why should the chairman not provide the equivalent of a judge’s summing-up? Those are issues that the Independent Football Commission, which is turning its attention to good governance, could usefully pursue.. There has been no explanation behind an unexpectedly severe punishment, not even ruling whether Ferdinand was guilty of “refusing” or “failing” to take a test. Did he genuinely forget? Did he attempt to contact the club and offer to return? What did his mobile phone records reveal? Is he taking medication for a kidney problem? We are left to guess. Having a QC chair the case, as will be done with the appeal, would be an improvement.Unfortunately, that is all there is to be seen or heard. However many times such such commissions are called “independent”, the world can see three FA councillors passing judgment. Although the FA’s spin doctors have gone out of their way to distance Palios and his determination to clean up football from the proceedings, they were fighting a losing battle.

“I hear all sorts of stories but at our club I’ve never even had any experience of hearing things either.” It is one area in which he is in agreement with Ars? Wenger, who said: “I don’t believe we have a deep problem in England.”Two other issues thrown up are the how independent disciplinary commissions can be and why so little information about their findings is made public. “I don’t think there’s the problem in football that you see in individual sports like cycling and athletics,” Ferguson said. “It’s got to be done properly,” Ferguson insisted, citing the case of his son Darren, who when tested as a Wrexham player, was made to stand on the touchline with his tester until he had performed.Not that the testers are especially likely to improve their tally of what the Professional Footballers’ Association insists is one performance-enhancing drug case in 10 years. FA regulations state quite clearly that if any players do not attend a test: “Both the club and its players may be subject to disciplinary proceedings.”As a result of that failure, however, one positive feature to come out of the affair will be an improvement in the standards of testing, with football adopting “man-marking” procedures similar to other sports, in which those chosen to give a sample are not allowed out of sight until they have done so. It decreased further on Friday night.United are fortunate, however, in one aspect of the current case, namely not having been charged as a club for their failure to ensure that Ferdinand took his test. What about when Arsenal came here [in September] on prime-time television throughout the world – what’s a worse example than that?” As a result of the antics at Old Trafford that day, Arsenal players were suspended for a total of nine matches, United’s Ryan Giggs and Cristiano Ronaldo were fined, and their manager’s respect for FA disciplinary processes became even more meagre. He has never forgiven them.”People said it was a terrible example, but the match wasn’t even live on television.