England could be disqualified
England will be disqualified from Euro 2004 if the squad rebellion forces the national team to forfeit their match in Turkey at the weekend, according to the Football Association’s Paul Barber.
The England players are reported to have unanimously voted in favour of missing Saturday’s Euro 2004 qualifier if Rio Ferdinand is not reinstated to the squad.
The Manchester United defender was yesterday left out of the 24-man party named by Sven-Goran Eriksson as a policy decision taken by the FA after he had failed to take a scheduled drugs test.
Talks continued today but there has been no resolution yet and FA communications and marketing director Barber warned that England face disqualification from Euro 2004 if no solution can be reached.
Barber revealed that the ultimate sanction available to UEFA was to exclude England from the tournament for failing to fulfil the fixture, which would be awarded 3-0 to Turkey.
“If England do not compete we will be disqualified from the tournament,” he said.
“The key to this is to keep talking and to resolve it as quickly as we can.
“There are a number of issues but the most important one is we have a match to play on Saturday.”
Barber admitted that there was still some way to go before common ground was found.
“I think there’s still some time to go before we can say that we’ve got a solution that everybody is happy with,” he added.
“I think the players would ideally like Rio back into the squad.
A process of consultation, thought and consideration would lead to a solution, according to Barber.
“The England players have at their disposal a number of positions. One of those options is not to travel to Turkey.”
