Flaws revealed in Ferdinand's story

A string of inconsistencies in the evidence given by Rio Ferdinand's witnesses were claimed today to be the main reason behind his eight-month ban.

The Football Association's independent commission felt they were left with little option but to clamp down heavily on the England defender.

It was also confirmed today that the FA pressed for a minimum one-year ban for the defender, as revealed in Standard Sport last week.

One of the biggest holes in the player's defence is the conflicting stories given by Manchester United club doctor Mike Stone and Jason Worthington, Ferdinand's chauffeur while the player was banned from driving.

It was reported today that Worthington told the tribunal that Stone contacted him at 12.01pm on 23 September, the day Ferdinand missed the routine drugs test at United's training ground, and told him not to let Ferdinand leave the training ground before he had provided a sample.

But Stone is understood to have told the commission he did not make contact with Worthington until 1.30pm, long after Ferdinand had left to go shopping.

The two versions of events raise serious questions about Ferdinand's insistence throughout the controversy that he had been guilty of nothing more than being forgetful. However, if Worthington's account is accurate, the centre-half must have been reminded of his obligations to provide the test the moment he climbed into his car.

Phone records have revealed Ferdinand started using his mobile at 12.39pm. As United manager Sir Alex Ferguson frowns on the use of mobiles at the training ground, it is understood that Ferdinand had left the training ground.

However, it was 2.02pm before Ferdinand eventually phoned back team doctor Stone but testers from UK Sport had left the training ground by then.

The three-man commission were so unimpressed with the evidence presented by United, Ferdinand and a number of witnesses that they suspended the defender for eight months.

But Mark Gay, the solicitor who presented the prosecution case for the FA last week, argued that if the tribunal felt they could not ban him for two years, under no circumstances should his ban be for less than one year.

Even Ferguson has admitted Ferdinand was wrong to fail to turn up for his drugs test.

The Old Trafford boss told the club's official television station, MUTV, last night: "He was wrong not to go. He knows that but we just have to keep supporting him."