FA to tighten drugnet procedures

Rio may yet escape lightly. Steve Tongue on the mistakes that led to militancy

The Football Association will tighten up their drug-testing procedures to ensure there can be no repetition of the farce of Rio Ferdinand's "forgotten" test that led to his exclusion from yesterday's match in Istanbul. A policy of "man-marking" as practised in other sports is likely to be introduced, so there is no possibility of a chosen player slipping away before he has given a urine sample. But mitigating factors in the Ferdinand case, including the precedent set in similar instances with other footballers, may mean that he escapes with a fine or minimal suspension.

The usual policy at present for testing on non-match days is that an independent sampling officer, appointed by UK Sport's Anti-Doping Directorate, and a Football Association supervising officer, turn up unannounced and select three or four players, whose names are communicated via a doctor or other club official. Those players are allowed "reasonable time to complete any activity in which they are engaged" like training, showering or media interviews but should begin the test within an hour.

During that period, however, neither of the officers stays with them, as is the case with sports like athletics. Manchester United, at whose Carrington training ground Ferdinand was supposed to be tested on 23 September, accept that procedures were inadequate that day and need to be tightened.

That point was emphasised in a letter to the FA's chief executive, Mark Palios, from Richard Caborn, the Sports Minister, who wrote: "The incident does seem to have thrown up an anomaly in the Association's doping procedures, which puts football out of line with other sports. It may be that the insistence on dealing with club doctors and not directly with the athletes has created an extra level of bureaucracy which may have contributed to the confusion in this case. I would be grateful if you would look at this issue."

The FA will also consider immediate suspensions for any players who fail to take the test for whatever reason. But in those circumstances the player's identity would become known, which would lead to further conflict with the clubs and the Professional Footballers' Association. Part of the latter's case has been that the FA broke their own rules in not allowing Ferdinand's name to remain confidential until due process had been carried out. They insist he should have been picked for the Turkey game and then given the opportunity to mount a proper legal defence at tomorrow's hearing.

Senior figures at the FA believe that they had a moral obligation not to pick someone who had failed to take a test - an offence in itself, whether technical or not - and that after omitting Ferdinand from the squad, they could not disguise the reason by claiming, for instance, that he was injured. It would have been a resignation issue, they say, if officials had been caught lying in that fashion.

The FA's preference was to announce the squad minus Ferdinand at the same time as he made a public apology for his absent-mindedness, but United declined to co-operate. Soho Square are also upset with the role played by the player's agent, Pini Zahavi, who has previously attracted disapproval for taking Sven Goran Eriksson to tea with Chelsea's owner, Roman Abramovich. Eriksson, however, is not being blamed for appearing to side with his players. And officials admire the way the captain David Beckham balanced his various obligations to his team-mates, to Eriksson and to his former United colleague Ferdinand.

Ferdinand will be interviewed tomorrow by the FA's compliance unit, who will then decide what charges, if any, to bring. His representatives will argue that in the past even some players found guilty of taking a banned substance - something he adamantly denies - have not been suspended or even named.

That contrasts with the draconian measures insisted upon by the World Anti-Doping Agency in its war on sports with a far more serious drugs problem. In their eyes, failing to take a test is tantamount to failing one and carries a two-year ban. New hard-line approach or not, Ferdinand hardly need fear that.