By Chris O'Brien
November 5 2004

Adrian Mutu, guilty of taking cocaine, has received a seven month ban from professional football. The length of the suspension has left Manchester United fans scratching their heads once again over the Rio Ferdinand saga.

Former Chelsea forward Adrian Mutu has been banned for seventh months by the Football Association after testing positive for cocaine in a drug scandal that has seriously damaged the career of the Romanian forward. The striker has been suspended by his club and will be a free agent when he is available again next May, with Arsenal said to be monitoring the situation closely.

United supporters may want to read that first paragraph once again. Mutu admitted and tested positive for drugs, yet his suspension from football is only seven months. Meanwhile Red Devils defender Rio Ferdinand, who foolishly failed to turn up for a drugs test, never tested positive for an illegal substance received a suspension longer than that handed to Mutu. By this theory, Ferdinand would have got off with less had he just taken an illegal substance!

There are other cases of just how unfair the Rio saga was. Three big-name players have tested positive for Nandralone in recent years, with Jaap Stam, Frank de Boer and Edgar Davids all picking up bans of four months or less. Let's make no bones about it - Ferdinand was foolish to miss his test back in 2003, but that is all he did. The FA later accepted the player had not taken drugs with latter tests putting the England international in the clear.

The length of Rio's ban is just another almighty cock up at Soho Square. The F.A insist they treat all cases equally, yet it is clear the Ferdinand suspension was just using United's defender as a big-name English example and gave England's football chiefs another chance to have a dig at Manchester United. Mutu took a drug that is illegal by British law and shamed himself as a role model for the young generation, yet he will be available again in mid-May having say on the sidelines for less time than a drug-free yet forgetful Ferdinand. Nonsense.