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I wonder what other members views are concerning the outcome of the Rio Ferdinand drugs enquiry.
Had he been a field or track athlete (or a cyclist even) a two year ban would not have raised an eyebrow.
It was an open and shut case. Whether he had taken drugs or not was irrelevant, he was guilty the moment he left the training ground without taking the test, to go shopping.
What amazes me is the arrogance shown by Manchester United, who obviously think that they are far above the law. Indeed, far from being hard done by, I think he got off very lightly. A £50,000 fine won`t hurt him as it represents less than one weeks wages to him.
If he feels that he has been made an example of, so be it. He shouldn`t have treated the test so lightly.
Jim
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Jim, I agree entirely with what you say, but I ask a question - Who Is Really Guilty? We are. We have raised these people to the status of gods, they believe that they are above the law, that they have the right as a god, to ride above any law or regulation pointed in their direction. They are not of this world.
Their life styles are such that if practised by the "normal" man or woman in the street, they would soon be deprived of their liberty as being abnormal in some way. Think of some of these highly paid persons, I won`t name them. Take away the trappings of the splendid life and what have you left - in many cases a poor, insecure and somewhat inferior person. By his skill at his chosen sport he is able to furnish his backers with the finance they require to be in a position to bully their fellow men. Have we not re-awakened the spectre of slavery once more? They are part of an attitude of "You belong to me, you do as I say, or else" by their masters. Is this not slavery which we fought so long to quell? Sorry Jim, we the public who have raised them to their god-like status, should be in the dock to explain why we allowed this to happen. I could go on expressing my opinions, but I`ll leave it there. William R.
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These sportsmen are paid a ridiculous amount of money to play their sport. Some more than £50,000 a week! and they expect to be treated gently?
If I was accused of drink driving and I failed to provide a sample, I would get a ban, that's the law.
Martin ~
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This case has a long way to go I feel. Man U are launching an appeal which could delay the start of the ban. Whatever happens the case has been dealt really badly. The FA, the PFA and ManU and The drugs testers themselves have all come out of this badly. Why does it take over 2 months for the FA to get a tribunal sorted. Why was Ferdinand allowed to leave the practice ground without having a test and refused one "allegedly" 25 minutes later when a drug tester was still at the ground.
Whatever it's hard to feel any sympathy for somebody earning the sort of money he earns. He should have had the book thrown at him. It's probably because he was a ManU player he avoided it.
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Footballers are athletes and like any other athlete, they know the form - you have to be tested for drugs periodically. To "forget" seems a bit fishy to me and Ferdinand (and his club) should take his punishment like a man.
On a related topic: there have been a couple of cases recently of pilots being stopped from flying a plane because they had consumed alcohol. Drink driving is bad enough, but to put the lives of an entire plane-full of passengers at risk is just beyond the pale!
