Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand was tonight handed a eight-month ban by an independent disciplinary commission for missing a drugs test three months ago.
The 25-year-old England international, who faced a possible ban of up to two years, has been charged by the Football Association (FA) with a "failure or refusal" to take the test at United's training ground at Carrington on September 23rd.
Ferdinand, who has 14 days to appeal against the verdict, has denied using drugs and passed a drugs test 36 hours after he should have taken the original one.
The FA ruled him out of England's final Euro 2004 qualifier in Turkey on October 11th but allowed him to keep playing for United, a decision criticised by FIFA president Sepp Blatter.
The FA's independent commission spokesman Nick Baron confirmed in a short statement: "The commission unanimously found that the charge was proved against Rio Ferdinand.
"It was further decided that he be suspended for eight months from January 12 2004 and fined a sum of £50,000.
"Having requested a personal hearing, he is subject to pay the costs of the hearing.
"Such decisions are subject to the right of appeal."
The ban means Ferdinand will miss next year's European Championship in Portugal, and the last four months of the premier league season and United's Champions League campaign.
Manchester United director and solicitor Maurice Watkins and Rio Ferdinand appeared before the press at the Reebook Stadium to read a brief statement in response to ban.
It read: "We are extremely disappointed by the result in this case. It is a particularly savage and unprecedented sentence which makes an appeal inevitable.
"We can confirm that Rio has the full support of Manchester United and the FA and there will be no further comment at this stage."