Rio Ferdinand has admitted he was left in tears after being banned from representing England at the height of his career. The former Manchester United defender was handed an eight-month suspension and fined £50,000 in 2004 after missing a drugs test at United’s Carrington training ground the previous September.
The punishment ruled Ferdinand out of the second half of the Premier League season and Euro 2004, where a star-studded England side were knocked out on penalties by hosts Portugal in the quarter-finals. Speaking on the BBC’s The Real Story in 2004, Ferdinand opened up on the emotional toll the suspension took on him.
“I love playing for England, I love playing for my club,” he said. “My club means so much to me. I go out there and play for the fans and for my family and for myself and to have that taken away from me in such a way was disheartening and something that really did shock me. I’m man enough to admit that I did cry.”
At the time, Ferdinand was one of the biggest names in world football and widely regarded as one of the best centre-backs on the planet. He joined the Red Devils from Leeds United in a then-British record £30million deal in 2002, becoming the world’s most expensive defender.
As well as preventing him starring for United, the drugs ban also halted Ferdinand’s international career, just as he was becoming a mainstay in the side under Sven-Goran Eriksson. He would go on to win 81 caps for his country.
Ferdinand has always insisted he never meant to avoid the drugs test deliberately, maintaining that he simply forgot after leaving Carrington following training. He revealed he had been reminded twice that testers were waiting, but said the oversight only dawned on him after he had already driven away to go shopping.
As soon as he realised his mistake, Ferdinand said he contacted officials at both United and the FA in an attempt to rectify the situation. “I made a conscious decision to phone the FA,” he explained.
“I had done my utmost to try and rectify the position that I was in at the time and to rectify the mistake I’d made, but there was no safety net there for me to go back and do the test. A person that is trying to get away from doing a test for some reason doesn’t make attempts to phone back the club doctors and the FA to rectify his position.”
Ferdinand has also repeatedly pointed out that he later took a voluntary drug test, which he passed, and even offered to take a hair follicle test. However, his protestations failed to convince the FA, who waved away his appeal and confirmed an eight-month suspension – one of the longest bans in English football history.