The Ferdinand affair is taking place at a time when football is battling to ditch its reputation for being soft on drug cheats.
FIFA came under fire at last year's World Cup finals for not allowing independent observers from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to monitor its drug-testing.
The game still faces the threat of being banned from next year's Athens Olympics if the governing body does not adopt the new WADA code aimed at standardising testing and sanctions across all sports.
FIFA president Sepp Blatter is also said to be very concerned by last week's threatened strike by England players.
Ferdinand, who says he forgot about the test at United's training ground on 23 September because he was in the middle of moving house, may not hear today about any charge since the FA have requested additional information from United as well as phone records.
The records should show whether Ferdinand received voice and text messages when club staff tried frantically to contact him after he left the training complex.
The defender is hoping that the fact he contacted the FA later in the day in a bid to put matters right will help his defence.
Meanwhile, Ferdinand's England and United team-mate Gary Neville has launched a scathing attack on the FA over their handling of the missed drugs test.
Neville said: "There is no doubt in my mind that Rio was prejudged by the Football Association.
"Yes, he missed a drugs test, but he deserved a hearing before people started passing sentence. Other players have missed drug tests and not been banned, but Rio was punished even before he had the chance to explain himself."
The FA have denied making Ferdinand's situation public knowledge, but Neville added: "Did they really believe that it would remain a secret when the press knew that the squad announcement had been delayed by 48 hours because of something serious?" Neville also defended the England squad's backing of Ferdinand, to such a point that it was feared they would boycott Saturday's game in Istanbul.
"None of us condones drugs, none of us believes that drugs tests should be taken lightly, but we also believe that Rio deserved our loyalty when he was hung out to dry before a trial," he said
