Page 43 - Alex Ferguson: My Autobiography

the way you would your children, and not believe them to be guilty of any allegation that originated
outside the family.
Maurice Watkins, our solicitor, was quite confident we could win our case, on the grounds that the
officials had not physically taken Rio away for the test. In my opinion, an example was often made of

Manchester United. Eric Cantona was the first major case when in 1995 he was sentenced to two
weeks’ imprisonment and banned from playing for nine months for his kung-fu kick at a spectator (his
prison sentence was later commuted to 120 hours’ community service). Then, in 2008, Patrice Evra
was disciplined by the FA after a confrontation with a groundsman at Stamford Bridge. Patrice picked
up a four-match ban for a skirmish on the pitch – when everyone had gone home – with a groundsman.
People assumed Man United received special treatment. The reverse was often true.
After a lot of legal toing and froing, Rio’s hearing was held by an FA disciplinary commission at

Bolton’s Reebok Stadium in December 2003 and lasted 18 hours. It was 86 days after the missed test.
I was among those who gave evidence on Rio’s behalf. But the three-man panel found Rio guilty of
misconduct. Maurice Watkins called the sentence ‘savage and unprecedented’ and David Gill said
Rio had been made ‘a scapegoat’. Gordon Taylor of the PFA called it ‘draconian’.
I spoke to Rio’s mother right away because the poor woman was in bits. We could feel devastated
by the loss of an important player, but it is the mother who will carry the real weight of such a

punishment. Janice was crying down the phone as I told her that our high opinion of Rio would not be
affected by the events of the last four months. We knew he was innocent, we knew he had been
careless and we knew he had been punished too severely.
At that stage we were considering an appeal, but it was obvious we had no chance of winning. I
could never understand that a missed drug test was treated as seriously as a failed one. If you admit to
being a drug taker, you are rehabilitated. We felt that the player was telling the truth, whereas the
system assumed he was not. Nor did we like the fact that information seemed to be leaking to the

press from the FA. In our view the confidentiality principle was being breached.
I told the hearing at Bolton that Rio would be in my team to play Spurs that weekend, regardless of
the outcome. He played alongside Mikaël Silvestre in a 2–1 win at White Hart Lane. In his last game
for eight months, Rio started in our 1–0 defeat at Wolves on 17 January 2004, but came off injured
after 50 minutes. Wes Brown took his place. Kenny Miller scored the only goal of the game.
I felt stricken to have lost him for so long. Our relationship started, in a sense, long before I made

him the most expensive signing in English football. I was very friendly with Mel Machin, who called
me from Bournemouth in 1997 to say he had a boy on loan from West Ham. ‘Go and buy him,’ Mel
said.
‘What’s his name?’
‘Rio Ferdinand.’
I knew that name from England youth teams. Mel was insistent. Mel, of course, was close to Harry
Redknapp, then manager of West Ham, where Rio had been nurtured, so I was sure his judgment was

based on solid information. I raised the subject of this young Bournemouth loanee with Martin
Edwards. We had him watched at Bournemouth and made a note of his attributes: graceful, balanced,
first touch like a centre-forward. Then we checked his background. Martin called the West Ham
chairman, Terry Brown, who said: ‘Give us a million plus David Beckham.’ In other words: he’s not
for sale.
At that time, Jaap Stam and Ronny Johnsen were ensconced in the heart of our defence and Wes

Brown was emerging as a young centre-half of promise. In the event, Rio was transferred to Leeds for
£18 million. In his first game for our Yorkshire rivals, he played in a back three against Leicester City