Blatter attacks FA over Rio

Sepp Blatter today blasted the Football Association for their handling of the Rio Ferdinand drugs case and the Joe Cole affair.

Speaking before tomorrow's World Cup draw, Blatter, president of the game's governing body FIFA, criticised the FA for not acting sooner over Ferdinand's failure to appear at a drugs test at Manchester United's training ground in September.

Blatter said: "Such cases must be dealt with immediately. You must not just put cases off until tomorrow, the day after or whenever."

He added: "I read in a newspaper today about the Cole case, which was for an infraction in May and there has only been a sanction now.

"This is not the way we want to see infractions dealt with."

Blatter expressed surprise at the weekend that Ferdinand was still playing for United in the Champions League while the case was being handled. Under FA rules Ferdinand is free to continue playing until the whole of any disciplinary proceedings have finished.

But Blatter said "Perhaps he is innocent but they need to work on it and do it immediately. Let's act and react." He added that under FIFA rules a player who is under suspicion of breaking any anti-doping rules would not be eligible to play until the case had been dealt with.