The Football Association on Tuesday defended its decision to rule out Rio Ferdinand from England's key Euro 2004 qualifier against Turkey last weekend.
FA chief executive Mark Palios denied accusations that the association had violated confidentiality rules in the case.
Manchester United, meanwhile, said it would continue to pick Ferdinand for the team pending any possible sanctions by the FA.
Ferdinand, English soccer's most expensive player, allegedly "forgot" to take a random drug test on Sept. 23 at Manchester United's training ground because he was preoccupied with moving house.
Even though he took -- and passed -- a test 36 hours later, Ferdinand was excluded by the FA from last Saturday's game, prompting the England team to threaten a boycott.
The players dropped the threat and played to a 0-0 draw.
Ferdinand met with the FA for more than three hours Monday.
"Some people have questioned whether we have at any point stepped outside our due process for disciplinary reasons. I can confirm that we have not," chief executive Mark Palios said in a statement. "Our decision to exclude Rio was a policy decision in our role representing England team affairs and was not part of the formal disciplinary process."
The Professional Footballers' Association has criticized the FA for naming Ferdinand, but Palios said his name had been disclosed by others earlier.
"At no time did we breach confidentiality," he said. "The FA's statement on the matter came many hours after Rio Ferdinand was named in public comments from both Manchester United, the PFA, and, it would appear, from numerous other sources.
"To the best of my knowledge, this organization did not leak any confidential information."
Published reports Tuesday said the FA would ask for Ferdinand's mobile-phone records before deciding on his punishment, reportedly to see whether his phone was switched off as United officials tried to reach him.
Ferdinand could face two possible charges -- failure to appear for the test or "willful failure" to appear. The second charge, more serious, could lead to a two-year ban. Manchester United said Tuesday it would continue picking Ferdinand until an announcement is made. United plays Leeds on Saturday.
"Rio will continue to be selected until such time as whatever punishment is decided upon is meted out and begins," chief executive David Gill told the Manchester Evening News.
Freddie Freeman homered and drove in four runs, Shohei Ohtani also went deep and Roki Sasaki earned his first major league win as the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Atlanta Braves 10-3 on Saturday night for their seventh straight victory. The Dodgers have won the first two games of the series to improve to 5-0 against Atlanta this year. Los Angeles’ three-game sweep at home early in the season left the Braves 0-7. Sasaki allowed three runs and six hits over five innings. The 23-year-old right-hander gave up a home run to Ozzie Albies, but received plenty of offensive support in his
Bayern Munich on Sunday were crowned German champions for the 34th time, giving striker Harry Kane his first major trophy, after second-placed Bayer 04 Leverkusen drew 2-2 at SC Freiburg. Bayern’s 3-3 draw at RB Leipzig on Saturday, when the Bavarians came from two goals down to take the lead before conceding a stoppage-time equalizer, meant defending Bundesliga champions Leverkusen needed to win at Freiburg to delay the title party. Leverkusen were two goals down before scoring twice in the final 10 minutes, but Xabi Alonso’s side could not find a third, as Bayern reclaimed the title at the first attempt after
Shuttler Lin Chun-yi yesterday kept Taiwan on the board as they faced their first major challenge of the group stage after marching into the last eight at the Sudirman Cup Finals in Xiamen, China. Taiwan were losing 3-1 to South Korea as of press time last night, with only the men’s doubles match remaining. Taiwan and four-time champions South Korea have already progressed to the quarter-finals, after Taiwan on Monday blanked the Czech Republic 5-0 without giving up a single game. Before last night’s tie, Taiwan were undefeated in Group B, with a 9-1 match record, ahead of South Korea, who, although also
A man fell from the 6.4m-high Clemente Wall in right field at PNC Park in Pittsburgh during Wednesday night’s game between the Pirates and the Chicago Cubs. Right after Andrew McCutchen hit a two-run double in the seventh inning to put the Pirates ahead 4-3, players began waving frantically for medical personnel and pointing to the man, who had fallen onto the warning track. The fan was tended to for approximately five minutes by members of both the Pirates and Cubs training staffs as well as PNC personnel before being removed from the field on a cart. The team issued a statement shortly
RSS