'Not the actions of a man with something to hide'

In a bad week for industrial relations, Ronald Atkin hears union's case

Leaving aside discussion over whether or not Rio Ferdinand is a forgetful young man, the players' union, the Professional Footballers' Association, insist that blame for the drug-test row over the England defender lies squarely with the Football Association for not following procedures which they themselves established.

"Stories that football is soft on drugs are clearly untrue when you consider that one fifth of UK drug-testing in sport is in football," said the PFA's deputy chief executive, Mick McGuire. "We had over 1,300 tests last year, and there must have been close to 10,000 over the past nine years. Our argument is that, in every single incident arising from those tests, there has been a procedure to follow.

"The player writes a letter of explanation, and three days later attends a meeting, with the FA and ourselves there, and if it is appropriate he is then charged. Confidentiality is always honoured. Yet in this instance the FA have chosen not to follow their own procedures, and we think that's wrong.

"They are discriminating against one player and, whether he plays for Rochdale or Coventry or is an established England international, we would be unhappy. The fact Rio has been banned from the biggest match of his career, with the FA stating meanwhile that he will be allowed to turn out for Manchester United, is ridiculous."

It was on 23 September that a team from UK Sport, the government-funded body responsible for drug testing in most competitive sports, turned up unannounced at United's Carrington training ground to carry out a routine squad test. Ferdinand, one of four players nominated, was the only one to leave the ground without undergoing the test, claiming to have forgotten in the hurly-burly of moving house. He took a test 33 hours later and it proved negative.

"The FA wrote to him and said they wanted his explanation in by 3 October, and the follow-up meeting was due last Monday," said McGuire. "But they then did an about-turn and told Rio he would not be picked in the England squad for Turkey. So before he had even had the chance to offer his explanation, the FA are acting as judge and jury.

"We at the PFA are not saying Rio is innocent or guilty, just that the FA have not followed the procedure to give him the opportunity to explain. And until now confidentiality has always been honoured. In 10 years of testing there has only ever been one positive result for a performance-enhancing drug. And the result of that was kept confidential."

Until last week, that is, when the Rushden & Diamonds goalkeeper Billy Turley was revealed as the player who escaped with rapped knuckles rather than a ban. More relevantly, Manchester City's French midfielder Christian Negouai also got off with a warning when he claimed to have forgotten the order to take a test. It was suggested in some quarters last week that the news had been leaked by an agent close to Ferdinand himself.

"Rio has breached the regulations by not attending a test," McGuire acknowledged. "But don't go any further than that. He subsequently took a test. Those aren't the actions of a man who has something to hide. There is no point the FA laying down rules if they aren't going to follow them themselves. We have been working with the FA for years to ensure this. But suddenly they disregard their own procedures. That's why the England squad were annoyed. They felt the FA had hung him out to dry."

McGuire's comment was borne out by England captain David Beckham's statement on Friday that, while Ferdinand was wrong to have missed the test, it was the FA's subsequent actions which upset the players. Beckham's comment that the FA "have promised to look at their procedures for future cases" was an indication of who is winning the argument.

Ferdinand's departure from Carrington brings to light a weakness in the testing programme at football training grounds, in the opinion of McGuire. "The fact that he was allowed to leave without them [the drug testers] missing him means the system probably needs tightening up to make sure this doesn't happen again." It certainly used to be a lot tighter, as McGuire can testify: "I remember having a test a few years back as a player, and they followed me into the toilet."