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Anorak News | Sex, Drugs & Football

Sex, Drugs & Football

by | 7th, October 2003

‘IF football is the new rock ‘n’ roll, then we should not be surprised about the sex and the drugs that follow in its wake.

Rio blames it on himself

After days in which the alleged gang rape of a 17-year-old girl by a group of Premiership footballers has dominated the papers, the game is in fresh turmoil this morning.

Rio Ferdinand, Manchester United and England centre-half, is facing a two-year ban from football after failing to show up for a routine drugs test a fortnight ago.

The 24-year-old claims that he forgot, but under FA rules a player who fails (or refuses) to show up is deemed to have failed the test.

The Sun says it is one of the biggest scandals to hit England since Bobby Moore was falsely accused of stealing a bracelet in Colombia during the 1970 World Cup.

“Ferdinand was told about the test before training but claims he forgot because he was moving house,” a source close to the testers tells the paper.

“Then he rang the club from home when he realised and offered to go back, but the testers had gone. But the fact he was told, then didn’t turn up when other players who were asked to did is a big problem for him.”

The most immediate result is that Ferdinand will almost certainly be left out of the England squad for the crucial game against Turkey on Saturday.

The Mirror insists there is no suggestion that Ferdinand had anything to hide and says the £29m star has not yet been charged with any offence.

However, the Mail can’t hide its scepticism, putting the word ‘forgotten’ in inverted commas and reminding its readers that the tests are aimed at detecting cannabis and cocaine as well as performance enhancing drugs.

Neither Ferdinand nor his good mate Kieron Dyer, the player who was caught up in the gang rape case because the hotel room was booked under his name, attracts any sympathy from the Mail.

They are, it says, part of “a gang of self-absorbed, multi-millionaire football princelings”.

“They have drunk and copulated their way around the nightclub VIP areas, five-star hotels and exclusive resorts of the western world as if it were their due.

“This is the week that reality finally caught up with them and the roof fell in.”

We’d hate to hear what the paper said if either player had actually been found guilty of anything.’



Posted: 7th, October 2003 | In: Tabloids Comment (1) | TrackBack | Permalink