Ferguson hits out at testing

13 April 2012

Sir Alex Ferguson today warned the Football Association that plans to toughen up drug testing for Premier League stars are a nuisance that will cost an "absolute fortune".

Top players are now set to be subjected to new procedures which will mirror the system in athletics that requires testers to know the whereabouts of players during a one-hour window of any given day.

But the Manchester United boss, who lost Rio Ferdinand to a ban in 2004 due to a missed drugs test, insists that the plan is riddled with potential problems.

Ferguson, whose side host Stoke tomorrow, said: "The procedures are becoming a real nuisance to us. If you give a player a day off, you have to notify the FA and tell them where he will be for one hour during his day off.

"But you know what young people are like. They might forget and, in that hour, the testers can turn up. I can also tell the FA that it will cost them an absolute fortune to implement all this."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in