MANCHESTER CITY CAPTAIN Kolo Touré is facing the prospect of a lengthy ban after it emerged last night that he had failed a drugs test.
During a mandatory testing session last month, believed to have taken place following City’s derby defeat to Manchester United, the A-sample provided by the 29-year-old tested positive for a “specified substance.”
According to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), a specified substance is one which is “more susceptible to a credible, non-doping explanation”. The punishment for a positive test ranges from a warning to a two-year ban.
The Ivorian defender now has the option to ask for his B-sample, which was provided as part of the same test, to also be analysed before the FA hold a hearing on the matter.
In a statement issued shortly before seven o’clock last night, Manchester City confirmed that the player had been suspended “pending the outcome of the legal process.”
Manchester City confirm that the FA has informed Kolo Touré that an ‘A-sample’ provided by him has tested positive for a specified substance.
As result of this, he has been suspended from participating in all first team and non-first team matches pending the outcome of the legal process.
There will be no further comment from the football club at this stage.
Specified substances
The news of Touré’s test makes him the first Premier League footballer to fail a drugs test since Chelsea’s Adrian Mutu in 2004. The Romanian striker, who tested positive for cocaine, was sacked by the club soon afterwards.
Although WADA accepts that there are often “credible explanations” for a positive test of this type, the authorities have regularly argued that athletes are responsible for ensuring that such substances do not enter their bodies.
Irish goalkeeper Paddy Kenny was handed a nine-month suspension by the FA in September 2009 after he tested positive for the banned stimulant ephedrine.
The defence offered by Kenny – that the drug had been present in medication taken to battle a chest infection – was deemed unsatisfactory by the Regulatory Commission.
More recently, Hamilton Academic midfielder Simon Mensing was given a four-week ban in December 2010 after he tested positive for the stimulant methylhexaneamine.
In his defence, the player presented evidence that the stimulant had been ingested as part of a dietary supplement, a fact which was taken into account by the Scottish FA in deciding on the severity of his punishment.
