Christian Volpato22 years old, former Roma and now performing in Sassuolo, was stopped by the police in Sydney on the night of July 23-24 109 km/h in an area where the limit was 60. The alcohol test was negative, but an initial roadside drug test would have been negative. tested positive for cocaine. His license was suspended for six months and a second sample was sent to a laboratory for confirmation.
WHAT IS THE RISK OF A FOOTBALLER WITH COCAINE?
Bye news. But the question is different: What does a football player risk in such a situation at the sporting level? And here we must clarify an issue that is often confused: a traffic check in Australia is not the same as a positive anti-doping test in football. These are two different worlds with different rules. In order for a real sporting case to arise, a positive reaction must manifest itself in the official anti-doping system. – FIFA, UEFA or the Italian National Agency (NADO) – with controlled sampling, an accredited laboratory and the possibility for the athlete to also have a B sample analyzed. In short, a roadside police check is not in itself sufficient to trigger an international disqualification.
However, if cocaine does become the subject of a sports trial, the consequences will vary slightly depending on when it was taken. World anti-doping rules treat cocaine in a special way: it is a “substance of abuse” banned in competition but treated differently from other true doping substances. If the player demonstrates that he took it outside the context of matches and without any connection with sporting results., he faces a ban of only three monthswhich can be reduced to a month only if he follows the therapeutic path. However, if this connection cannot be excluded, the punishment can reach two or even four years..
Even before a final verdict is made, there is also a provisional suspension: a measure that can keep a player off the field and recall him for several weeks, regardless of how the case ends. There is another front, less regulated, but just as concrete: this is the club. In addition to federal rules, the company can take action on its own: temporarily suspend the player from the group.open internal disciplinary proceedings, freeze bonuses and bonuses, and in the most extreme cases even consider terminating the contract. However, this latter path is never automatic: convincing facts are needed, not just media hype, otherwise the club itself risks legal difficulties.
PRECEDENTS
This is not the first time football has had to deal with cocaine, and there are historical precedents that help to highlight just how high the price may have to be paid. An extreme case in Italy is the case Jonathan Bacinithe former winger of Udinese, Juventus and Brescia – it was his card that was involved in the 2001 exchange that brought Buffon from Parma to Juventus. In November 2004, while playing for Brescia, he tested positive for cocaine: initially a nine-month ban, which then turned into a year on appeal and the club immediately sacked him.. Returning to the pitch with Siena, he tested positive again in December 2005, before a match against Lazio. Siena terminated the contract, and the Federal Court in 2006 overturned it. radiates for life: He remains the only Italian footballer to receive a life ban for cocaine. It was not until 2023, almost twenty years later, that CONI re-examined the case and overturned the disbarment, in part because the rules had become less strict during that time.
Outside of Italy, two important names remain in the memory of South American football. Diego Armando Maradonawhile wearing a Barcelona shirt, he tested positive for cocaine at the end of a match against Bari in March 1991, resulting in a one and a half year ban. Claudio CaniggiaDuring his time at Roma, he tested positive in 1992 and was suspended for 13 months: however, he managed to recover and continue his career at a high level.
