Chelsea's Mutu admits cocaine use

Adrian Mutu has admitted to testing positive for cocaine and will not request that a 'B' sample be analysed according to players' union chief Gordon Taylor.

Adrian Mutu has admitted to testing positive for cocaine and will not request that a 'B' sample be analysed according to players' union chief Gordon Taylor.

The Chelsea striker met with representatives of the Professional Footballers' Association yesterday and will not insist on counter-analysis of the original test which proved positive for cocaine.

"He will not be going ahead with the second test. He has tested positive for cocaine," Taylor told the Press Association.

"There will be a hearing at the Football Association, which we hope can be held as quickly as possible to get the matter dealt with."

Taylor expects there to be PFA representation at the hearing while Mutu's advisors should also be free to attend before an FA commission, who must decide the Romanian star's fate.

The player could be suspended for up to two years but he can expect a lighter penalty, particularly in light of his early admission and acceptance of the original test result.

Mutu's representative Gheorghe Popescu revealed the player has been "destroyed" but hopes to escape with a six-month suspension by coming clean.

Former Romania midfielder Popescu, now one of Mutu's agents, advised the player not to seek counter-analysis of his sample.

"Mutu is destroyed. I told him to assume full responsibility for his actions but he seemed not to understand," said the former Tottenham player.

"I told him not to ask for a second sample so as not to prolong his agony. I told him that almost always the second sample confirms the first."

Mutu is believed to have spent much of last night locked in talks with Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon.

He could now be suspended without pay by the London club until the FA complete their own investigation.

His shame has also caused a massive split among the four agents responsible for advising him.

Ioan Becali refused to fly to London because he was so upset by the revelations and because he knew they were true.

Becali said: "I found out about the result on Tuesday. The Chelsea manager (Jose Mourinho) was a gentleman and called me.

"From that moment I decided to change my phone number. That is why I didn't want to go to England with my brother Victor, who also looks after Adrian, because I knew the story was true.

"I was very unhappy with Mutu and told him about the test. But he decided to go to Italy because he would be ashamed to appear in front of his colleagues ahead of this news."

Becali added: "He didn't play well against Villa so he didn't merit inclusion against Paris St Germain in the Champions League a few days later.

"Three players missed a training session after that game. Mutu was one."

Becali claimed this had upset Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho, who ordered a drug test.

The agent added: "We will not be requesting the 'B' test."

Mutu, signed from Parma for £15.8million last year, now faces having his lucrative £60,000-a-week contract ripped up by Chelsea.

Becali also claimed that he lied to former Blues boss Claudio Ranieri last season so that Mutu could go out clubbing back home in Romania.

"I lied to one of my best friends for Mutu," he said.

"Last season, he asked me to tell Claudio that his mother was sick. Instead, he wanted to come to Romania for two days and have fun.

"Ranieri had left a dossier that Mutu was a bad egg, going out clubbing. This is not a lifestyle that you associated with a professional footballer."

Becali is convinced that Mutu went off the rails because of personal problems between himself and his wife - television presenter Alexandra Dimu.

The pair are now reconciled, although Becali added Mutu was unhappy at leaving his child.

He explained: "I think this happened to him because of his divorce. He was very upset he left a child behind with his wife."

Mutu fell out with Mourinho over his decision to defy the club and play for Romania in their World Cup qualifier against the Czech Republic last week.

The striker played despite a knee problem and Mourinho fined him two weeks' wages on his return to England.

He has now been told to stay away from the club's training ground.

The club and the Football Association have yet to make any comment.

Taylor added: "It's very difficult to predetermine what will happen at the hearing but we do have a distinction between social drugs and performance-enhancing drugs.

"If the player accepts that he is guilty and if he is prepared to undertake rehabilitation, be checked regularly and to be clean then there is greater sympathy towards the player."

The PFA chief believes it would not be in Chelsea's interest to sack Mutu, as they did goalkeeper Mark Bosnich who also tested positive for cocaine, because of the amount of money spent on the player.

"Mark Bosnich wasn't in the first team and they took the opportunity to cancel his contract. Adrian Mutu cost over £15million, it's a great deal of money to write off," he told Sky Sports News.

"Bearing in mind the investment they have made, they have as much interest in getting the player right as Adrian himself and as we have."