Category : News
Date : 22.03.2004
Printable version
In his first
television interview since he failed to attend a routine drugs test,
Rio Ferdinand tonight (Monday 22 March) tells Fiona Bruce -
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that he cried over his suspension;
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that he did not agree with his England team mates when
they threatened to go on strike over his suspension;
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and that, despite the FA accepting he did not avoid
the test for drug related issues, he's worried the stigma may "never
go away".
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Speaking exclusively on tonight's 大象传媒 ONE Real Story
with Fiona Bruce (7.30pm) Rio Ferdinand talks about his reaction
to his suspension.
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He says: "I love playing for England, I love playing
for my club.
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"My club means so much to me, I go out there and
play for the fans and for my family and for myself and to have that
taken away from me in such a way was disheartening and something that
really did shock me.
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"I'm man enough to admit that I did cry."
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Revealing key planks of his appeal, Rio Ferdinand claims
that as soon as the club contacted him to reveal that he had missed
the test he contacted the FA to ask their testers to go straight back
to Manchester United's training ground.
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He claims he was thwarted because a key member of the
FA's staff was on holiday.
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"I made a conscious decision
to phone the FA which I did after that phone call and they said the
person who you need to speak to was on holiday, so I'd done my utmost
to try and rectify the position that I was in at the time and to rectify
the mistake I'd made - but there was no safety net there for me to go
back and do the test," he says.
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"A person that is trying
to get away from doing a test for some reason doesn't make attempts
to phone back the club doctors and the FA to rectify his position."
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He also reveals his explanation behind a phone call
made to a private doctor shortly after he failed to take the test.
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Rio claims: "I'd just come
back from injury, that doctor had been consulting me on issues to do
with that injury.
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"After every training session I was speaking to
him just letting him know how I got on and if I was feeling ok.
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"My phone record bill showed I was phoning them
at a consistent time over those weeks after training, so that was no
different from any other day."
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Rio Ferdinand says the doctor gave a statement saying
that he had never given advice on drugs.
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After Rio Ferdinand was dropped from the England squad
the other players threatened to go on strike.
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He now says he was not comfortable with this: "When
your fellow pros are sticking up for you and standing up against the
system for you that's something that goes a long way and will probably
stay with me forever and I fully appreciate that and the lads know how
much I appreciate that.
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"But at the time when they was talking about going
on strike and risking everything that we've worked so hard to aim for
in either the tournament and the future tournaments I didn't feel comfortable
with that at all.
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"I wasn't, I didn't want them to go on strike,
the fans, the people that have worked us hard to get there the players,
the coaching staff to get to the tournament and to throw it all away
just over me I didn't really feel comfortable with that at all."
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Rio Ferdinand tells Fiona Bruce that he accepts that
his reputation as a drug free player has been damaged even though he
hoped a hair follicle test would prove his claim never to have taken
recreational or performance enhancing drugs.
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"My name was out there in the public arena for
people to make assumptions on why I missed a drugs test. That stigma
is something that may never go away.
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"I have never done any type of drug and there's
no place at all in my life at all for that to be associated with me."
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"My phone records get put
out into the public which is just something that I could never understand
and it is something that really really did hurt me.
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"And then my family and my friends are stopped
by people, media trying to get derogatory stories of people offering
people money to sell stories on me.
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"I've got young brothers and sisters that have
to come out onto the street and they've seen strangers with big cameras
and stuff that's scaring them there the kind of things that I have to
deal, as a footballer you've got to deal with things to a certain extent
but you don't expect your family to be to be intruded on."
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Rio Ferdinand admits that on the day the testers came
to Manchester United he was twice told that he was required to produce
a sample.
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He insists that this act of "forgetfulness"
constantly plays on his mind: "I might sit
there in a room and it goes through my head, I could be watching EastEnders,
it goes through my head straightaway.
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"You ask yourself the question how did you forget,
there's no answer for it I can't find an answer I forget, if I'd known
at the time I that I'd forgotten I wouldn't be here now as I said and
that's the fact of the matter."
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Rio Ferdinand says he will not make a further appeal
against his eight month suspension.
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Notes to Editors
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All quotes must credit 大象传媒 ONE's Real Story With Fiona
Bruce.
