Kolo Toure banned for six months
May 27, 2011
Manchester City defender Kolo Toure will miss the start of next season after being handed a six-month ban from all football for failing a drugs test.
LONDON
Manchester City defender Kolo Toure will miss the start of next season after being handed a six-month ban from all football for failing a drugs test.
The ban is back-dated to 2 March, when Toure's provisional suspension began.
He is free to play from 2 September, but will also be target-tested for a period of two years from 26 May.
"This has been a difficult period, and I am sad to have missed the team's triumph of securing Champions League football and the FA Cup," Toure said.
"But I am relieved that I will be able to return to football in September and thank the FA's commission for their understanding."
An independent regulatory commission, which could have issued anything from a warning to a two-year ban by way of punishment, reached the verdict after a hearing on Thursday.
Toure admitted the offence - his first - contrary to Regulation 3 of the FA Doping Regulations 2010-11.
But the panel took into consideration the circumstances behind his use of water tablets belonging to his wife.
On 4 March, Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger - who brought Toure to England by signing him - revealed: "He wants to control his weight a little bit because that's where he has some problems and he took the product of his wife.
"He is a boy that has a clean life, a very honest living. I just think it is a mistake."
Headed up by Christopher Quinlan QC, the commission were satisfied Toure did not intend to enhance sporting performance or to mask the use of a performance-enhancing substance.
Manchester City defender Kolo Toure will miss the start of next season after being handed a six-month ban from all football for failing a drugs test.
The ban is back-dated to 2 March, when Toure's provisional suspension began.
He is free to play from 2 September, but will also be target-tested for a period of two years from 26 May.
"This has been a difficult period, and I am sad to have missed the team's triumph of securing Champions League football and the FA Cup," Toure said.
"But I am relieved that I will be able to return to football in September and thank the FA's commission for their understanding."
An independent regulatory commission, which could have issued anything from a warning to a two-year ban by way of punishment, reached the verdict after a hearing on Thursday.
Toure admitted the offence - his first - contrary to Regulation 3 of the FA Doping Regulations 2010-11.
But the panel took into consideration the circumstances behind his use of water tablets belonging to his wife.
On 4 March, Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger - who brought Toure to England by signing him - revealed: "He wants to control his weight a little bit because that's where he has some problems and he took the product of his wife.
"He is a boy that has a clean life, a very honest living. I just think it is a mistake."
Headed up by Christopher Quinlan QC, the commission were satisfied Toure did not intend to enhance sporting performance or to mask the use of a performance-enhancing substance.