Blues hit out at test verdict
31 Aug 2006 - 15:23:29
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- Blues hit out at test verdict
Chelsea have reacted angrily to the Football Association's decision to fine them £40,000 for conducting a private drugs test on Adrian Mutu.
The AS Romanian striker, who now plays for Fiorentina, was sacked by Chelsea in October 2004 after testing positive for cocaine and being hit with a seven-month ban by the Football Association.
It subsequently emerged that the Blues had conducted their own tests in order to catch out Mutu after hearing rumours that he was a cocaine user.
An independent disciplinary commission on Thursday found that the private test breached the FA's doping control regulations and issued the club with the fine and a warning.
Afterwards Chelsea hit out at both the verdict and the FA's original decision to charge them.
A statement issued via the club's official website read: "While we accept there was a technical breach of the doping regulations in this case, we find it extraordinary that we have been found guilty of trying to undermine the drug testing system.
"The Football Association would be better served using its resources to increasing the effectiveness of its random testing and applying the toughest penalties available in all drug related cases, rather than punishing those who act genuinely in the fight against drugs.
"The FA appears to be more interested in procedure than substance, wasting a huge amount of time and money on lawyers in a case that has taken two years to resolve. During this time hundreds of hours have been spent prosecuting a technicality when common sense should have been applied.
"Despite our efforts to find a sensible and speedy resolution, the issue became mired in a bureaucracy that makes a mockery of the claims that the organisation is modernising itself.
"Chelsea FC would never contravene any rules in order to cover-up drugs in sport. These rules are in place to punish those who seek to protect drug takers.
"Our stance in the Adrian Mutu case proves that our sole intention in conducting a private test was to protect football from a drug taker."