August 28 – Hamburg SV’s Croatia Under-21 international Mario Vušković has had his doping ban doubled to four years in a ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
The German national anti-doping agency said it won an appeal jointly filed with the World Anti-Doping Agency to extend a two-year ban originally handed out by the German FA after he tested positive for the banned blood-booster EPO at a training session in September 2022. The verdict means he will be ineligible to play until November, 2026.
CAS explained in its ruling Vuskovic “did not submit any mitigating factors that could be taken into account to reduce the four-year period of ineligibility”.
It consequently dismissed Vuskovic’s appeal against the ban, and at the same time upheld appeals by the World Anti-Doping Agency and Germany’s doping watchdog who had both sought to have the ban doubled.
Hamburg said in a statement that Vušković and his lawyers will study the CAS verdict before it has talks with the player about the next steps.
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