sport

Holloway unhappy with drug tests

Ian Holloway laid into UK Anti-Doping officers after being denied the chance to address his whole team after their defeat to West Ham.

Holloway asked for urine tests on Kevin Phillips and Barry Ferguson to be delayed so that he could tell his whole Blackpool team how proud he was of them, despite missing out on a place in the Premier League.

The pair had been randomly selected but only Ferguson was allowed back into the Blackpool dressing room, with Phillips being retained.

The incident triggered a rant from Holloway that lasted several minutes.

He said: "I just had a ruck with officials because I wanted to speak to my team and wasn't allowed to bring one player, who needed to give a urine sample, back into my dressing room to speak to him.

"It's bureaucracy gone mad. My players wouldn't have walked off and go shopping. So why should I be punished about that? It's absolute madness. They chose two players and would only let one come back out. I wanted to get Kevin Phillips back out but they would only let Barry Ferguson come back out. What's going on?"

Update:

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