Rio Ferdinand’s ban for failing to show up for a drugs test has rightly been a frustration to Manchester United fans, given that Manchester City’s Christian Negouai also failed to attend a drugs test in 2003 and received no ban.
Channel 4’s Dispatches has today shown we have even more reasons to feel aggrieved, with 240 drugs tests being abandoned between April 2007 and August 2010 after players failed to attend. More than 20 of these tests occurred at Premier League clubs, including four failed tests at City and Everton, one at Liverpool and five at Fulham.
Not only have the FA not banned these players, they’ve swept it under the carpet. It’s hard to believe they hung Rio out to dry for committing exactly the same offence.
Just last month Sir Alex Ferguson claimed the FA treated us like “shit”. How can anyone disagree with that anymore?
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