Taylor: No more 'Rio' drug rows

13 April 2012

Gordon Taylor wants to ensure the Rio Ferdinand drugs saga is the last of its kind.

The players' union chief was at yesterday's top level meeting in Manchester to heal the rift after the culture of mistrust which blew up between the Football Association and England players when Ferdinand was omitted from Sven-Goran Eriksson's squad in October.

Ferdinand has until Monday to decide whether to appeal against his eight-month ban or accept the punishment and bring to an end a disciplinary impasse which at one stage looked set to spark an unprecedented strike by the international team.

The defender's Manchester United team-mate Gary Neville, who is still annoyed at Ferdinand's punishment, was also among the delegation which spent three hours discussing various ways of standardising international selection policy for players caught breaching either football or criminal laws.

Taylor's main concern is the need to clarify how players are informed how they are required to carry out drug tests in an effort to make sure anyone who misses one knows exactly what punishment they face.

"We have to make sure each individual player has been contacted by the tester directly," Taylor-said. "We have to know each player has been addressed and given a form to sign, or that the tester is going to stay with him until he has provided a sample.

"Then, there is no reason why anything like this can happen again."

All parties hope to thrash out an agreed policy for England selection by the time Eriksson picks his next squad for the friendly against Euro 2004 hosts Portugal on 18 February.

Apart from Ferdinand, the ban on Alan Smith playing against Denmark in November was also discussed.

Eriksson was told to drop the Leeds striker because he had previously been arrested by police over a bottle-throwing incident at Elland Road.

The PFA and the England squad believed the FA's decision to suspend Smith assumed guilt before the player had been given the opportunity to prove his innocence and was part of the gettough policy of new chief executive Mark Palios.

Palios was not present at yesterday's meeting but will be involved in later stages of the process - as will England captain David Beckham, who was also absent because of training commitments with Real Madrid. "We believe there is a great deal of common ground between all parties," said FA executive director David Davies, who was accompanied by under-fire director of football development Trevor Brooking.

"Everybody is committed to givingthe players and the England team the best chance possible to win and be successful in 2004 and beyond," Davies said.

"We are resolved to taking this process forward in a positive way, and I am confident that an agreed policy for England team selection will be decided by February."

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