Ferdinand Banned For 8 Months

[Guest]

Not T&F.

For the limeys here (plus the few yanks who understand why real football is called...football)
England's best football defender banned for 8 months for missing a test. Will miss Euro 2004 damn it...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/3333091.stm

[Guest]

Re: Ferdinand Banned For 8 Months

>Not T&F.

For the limeys here (plus the few yanks who understand why real
>football is called...football)
England's best football defender banned for 8
>months for missing a test. Will miss Euro 2004 damn
>it...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/3333091.stm>

Wheww....I thought Magellan tested positive.

[Guest]

Re: Ferdinand Banned For 8 Months

I thought it was the Arch Duke. Pretty tough penalty for getting yourself waxed and causing (whatever that means) a war.

[Pego]

Re: Ferdinand Banned For 8 Months

I have followed the Ferdinand story as it developed. It was all over the European newspapepars. Mark, sorry for the EU, LOL.

[Jefferson Buffalo]

Re: Ferdinand Banned For 8 Months

And I thought it was all bull.

[Guest]

Re: Ferdinand Banned For 8 Months

Does Isabella know about this yet?

[Guest]

Re: Ferdinand Banned For 8 Months

That cute little bull that loved flowers over fighting? Say it ain't so.

[DentyCracker]

Re: Ferdinand Banned For 8 Months

Bet he won't miss another test. Funny thing is that players have been banned for a shorter time after testing positive for nandrolone. I am an Arsenal fan but I do believe given the precedent he has been harshly treated.

[Guest]

Re: Ferdinand Banned For 8 Months

Seemed a bit harsh to me as well, he did take the test 2 days later and passed. I think he's probably typical of present day soccer players in the UK. Overpaid, spoiled etc. He probably couldn't bothered and went shopping instead.

[Guest]

Re: Ferdinand Banned For 8 Months

Mark, don't take this personally, because you are usually one of the voices of reason on this board, but both your opening post ("damn it") and this latest ("couldn't be bothered") serve as perfect examples of why drugs remain so rampant. Supporters of team sports will go to any end not to believe that one of their heroes (as opposed to a solitary track guy) could possibly be guilty, because it's going to screw their team.

I think it much more likely he passed the test two days later because he had two days to take care of whatever masking was required. He was able to escape the one real weapon that testers have (and none of the pro sports take seriously enough) which is unannounced out-of-competition testing that you can't prepare for. I have zero sympathy for the silly sod or any of his defenders.

[Guest]

Re: Ferdinand Banned For 8 Months

>Mark, don't take this personally, because you are usually one of the voices of
>reason on this board, but both your opening post ("damn it") and this latest
>("couldn't be bothered") serve as perfect examples of why drugs remain so
>rampant. Supporters of team sports will go to any end not to believe that one
>of their heroes (as opposed to a solitary track guy) could possibly be guilty,
>because it's going to screw their team.

I think it much more likely he
>passed the test two days later because he had two days to take care of whatever
>masking was required. He was able to escape the one real weapon that testers
>have (and none of the pro sports take seriously enough) which is unannounced
>out-of-competition testing that you can't prepare for. I have zero sympathy for
>the silly sod or any of his defenders.


No problem.
Actually I have no doubt that drug taking is rampant in team sports, my "damn it" was in reference to him missing Euro 2004 whether or not he was taking anything (and my suspicion is that if he was on something it was probably recreational). In fact I just read that another Italian footballer failed a test, the fifth caught this year. The sport I'm most suspicious of is rugby, I used to play it and I know how knackering it is. I know the players are in fantastic condition these days and the preparation is highly scientific, but to play for 80 mins (plus extra time in the recent final)at the speed they do makes me wonder how they do it. (btw...I'm in LA and we just had a small earthquake while writing this!)

[gh]

Re: Ferdinand Banned For 8 Months

Does this mean there was just a really big-assed earthquake somewhere? T&FN offices 400M north of LA started swaying a few minutes back. For us to feel the same one....

[gh]

Re: Ferdinand Banned For 8 Months

A 6.5 near San Simeon

[Guest]

Re: Ferdinand Banned For 8 Months

That's pretty decent, fortunately I think that's a pretty uninhabited area. You probably felt it more than us...they've already got the inane interviews on the radio, "....it was sort of a rolling motion, the drapes were swinging back and forth and the cat freaked out"!

[tafnut]

Re: 2 dead

As a former resident of the Bay Area, I remember we all got rather nonchalant about the quakes, but reading on cnn.com that 2 died in a building collapse, reminds me that it's always serious business. The nadir of this is that people have actually bought land on the 'east bank' of the San Andreas fault, anticipating oceanfront property.