Danish Minister of Sport Brian Mikkelsen said Rio Ferdinand’s eight-month ban for missing a doping test is too lenient and will push for the case to be heard by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) if the Manchester United player’s suspension is upheld on appeal.
”This verdict [of eight months] is not satisfactory. It is simply too lenient,” said Mikkelsen, who is a member of the executive committee of the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada).
”I will soon be contacting my colleagues on the Wada executive committee to ask them to bring this case to [the] CAS if Rio Ferdinand’s ban of eight months is confirmed on appeal.”
Mikkelsen insisted Ferdinand, who cost £30-million when he joined United from Leeds United in 2002, should be suspended for two years in accordance with the agency’s rules.
”The rules have to be the same for football as they are for other sport disciplines,” Mikkelsen told Danish news agency Ritzau.
”Football shouldn’t be the spoiled child. And that’s why Ferdinand should have two years out.”
Ferdinand still believes his eight-month suspension for missing a random drugs test is too harsh but English newspaper the Daily Mail reported on Tuesday that he fears a failed appeal could rule him out of action for even longer.
The player has two weeks to lodge an appeal against the ban and fine of £50 000, which at present means he will miss the Euro 2004 championships in Portgual starting in June.
When the FA announced Ferdinand’s ban last month, United director and solicitor Maurice Watkins said an appeal against the ”savage and unprecedented” punishment was ”inevitable”.
Ferdinand’s ban is due to begin in a fortnight and would run until the middle of September.
But an appeal would not be heard until the end of February at the earliest and — if the verdict and sentence are upheld — would delay the start and finish of the suspension.
Ferdinand’s ban was imposed after he failed to attend a drugs test at September 23 at United’s Carrington training ground. He claimed he forgot to take the test because he was preoccupied with moving house.
The Lausanne-based CAS, created in 1984, is independent of any sports organisation and provides a forum to resolve legal disputes in sport through arbitration or mediation. — Sapa-AFP