FA Premiership news: Manchester United began another week of legal drama with a defeat yesterday when, to his intense irritation, Alex Ferguson received a £10,000 fine and a two-match suspension for his outburst at Newcastle two months ago.

Ferguson was surprised by the severity of the punishment and his employers will hope their "disappointment" is not so extreme in the next few days when the English Football Association announces on Thursday the charges Rio Ferdinand is to face.

United's legal team went straight from Ferguson's disciplinary hearing in Manchester city centre into talks at Old Trafford about Ferdinand's now infamous failure to take a drugs test at the club's training ground a month ago.

Aware that the FA is becoming increasingly impatient with the length of time it was taking to receive relevant documents, such as Ferdinand's mobile telephone records, the club said a dossier was on its way to the ruling's body headquarters in London last night. It includes a statement from the club's doctor, Mike Stone, detailing how Ferdinand had apparently left the training ground unnoticed, and the latest bill for his mobile telephone, which corroborates his story that he contacted the FA after realising he had forgotten to meet the drug-testers.

The FA has also received a signed affidavit from Manchester City's Eyal Berkovic, who, as a friend of Ferdinand from their West Ham days, had been with him on the relevant afternoon and will support his claims he wanted to re-organise the test for the same day.

Steve Barrow, the FA's compliance officer who is leading the investigation, is also inquiring into why Ferdinand, before calling the FA, apparently spoke to Patrick O'Reilly, a consultant urologist at the private clinic in Cheshire where the England defender was treated last month for what was described as a kidney complaint.

United expect Ferdinand will face a charge of failing to take a drugs test rather than the more serious offence of wilfully missing a test. Nevertheless, it still carries the threat of a lengthy suspension.

United will also go to the high court this week to try to prevent their former security official, Ned Kelly, releasing a book about his time at Old Trafford and, specifically, the players' nocturnal habits.

Ferguson is considering appealing against the FA's decision. Otherwise he will have to watch United's next two games, at home to Fulham on Saturday and the League Cup tie at Leeds a week tonight, from the directors' seats. Clearly angry, the manager left the four-hour hearing complaining the FA had not taken into account his previously unblemished disciplinary record.

When Maurice Watkins, the club's solicitor, emerged to tell reporters he believed the FA had considered Ferguson's record, the manager butted in: "Did they? Are you sure?" Watkins said: "Well, they said they did, anyway."

Ferguson had submitted a detailed account to the hearing denying he had called the referee Uriah Rennie a "cheat" for having failed to penalise Newcastle's Andy O'Brien for a foul on Ryan Giggs, but admitting that he swore at the fourth official, Jeff Winter. The two officials also gave their version of events, and Rennie is understood to have accepted he missed a crucial decision.

Meanwhile, Craig Bellamy is out of Wales's European Championship play-off against Russia next month and the Newcastle United striker will also miss as much as the next four months of Newcastle's season after undergoing surgery in Colorado last night on his troublesome left knee.

The news will come as a massive blow to Mark Hughes and Bobby Robson. The Newcastle manager and his board must now consider spending on a replacement forward in January's transfer window.

Barcelona confirmed yesterday that Newcastle had spoken to them over the weekend about Patrick Kluivert's possible availability at Nou Camp.

"Newcastle came here to invite us to play in a pre-season tournament and, while they were here, they asked us about Kluivert's situation," said the Barca president Joan Laporta. "We didn't give them permission to speak to him."

Meanwhile, Derby County were yesterday taken over by a group of businessmen led by a barrister, John Sleightholme, for about £15 million, after going into receivership earlier in the day.