‘Rio Ferdinand will appeal against his eight-month ban from
football next week by producing a hair sample, which, he
claims, will prove that he had nothing to fear from his
missed drugs test.
‘The Manchester United and England defender hopes that the
new evidence will prove that he had nothing to hide. He is
privately optimistic that he can reduce his suspension so
drastically that he could play in the European Championship
finals this summer. A three-man panel appointed by the
Football Association will meet next Thursday and Friday to
consider Ferdinand’s appeal against the verdict and
sentence. The test on the player’s hair will form a
substantial part of his defence.
‘Ferdinand is understood to have submitted his hair for
testing early in the new year — with FA approval — after the
two-day hearing in December at which he received the ban.
Tests on hair can reveal whether a person has taken
recreational drugs and some, but not all, performance-
enhancing substances. The longer the strand, the farther
back in time the testers can go and Ferdinand’s camp will
claim that his sample proves that he had been clean for up
to seven months.
‘They believe that it is particularly relevant because, in
its damning findings, the original disciplinary panel
inferred that Ferdinand was trying to evade detection when
he failed to report for his drugs test at the United
training ground in September. They did not believe his
claims of forgetfulness — he said that he was moving house
that day but was also seen shopping in Manchester city
centre — but the player’s lawyers will use the hair test to
argue that Ferdinand had nothing to hide.
‘It is not the first time that a hair test has been employed
in football. Christoph Daum was dismissed by Bayer
Leverkusen and dropped as Germany’s prospective coach in
2000 after he failed a similar test, which he hoped would
disprove a magazine’s claim that he had been taking
cocaine.’