Former Manchester City star's doping ban extended to 3 times the original duration

Modified Aug 02, 2018 12:11 GMT

What's the story?

Former Manchester City and Sevilla midfielder, Samir Nasri, has reportedly had his current doping ban extended from 6 to 18 months. This suspension serves as his punishment for violating UEFA's anti-doping regulations.

In case you didn't know...

The 31-year-old was initially banned for just a period of 6 months as a consequence of him allegedly receiving a sort of treatment in Los Angeles, which happened to violate World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)'s rules, as claimed by UEFA.

While the ban is backdated to the 1st of July, 2017, Nasri did play for Antalyaspor during the aforementioned ban, before leaving only in January 2018.

Heart of the matter

Former French international, Nasri, is believed to have undergone this treatment while on holiday after a tweet by Drip Doctors went public in December 2016, and pictured Nasri. The tweet said he was being given "a concierge Immunity IV drip to keep him hydrated and in top health during his busy soccer season with Sevilla".

Nasri, who was on loan at Sevilla from City at the time, had requested UEFA to grant him a backdated therapeutic use exemption (TUE), which would allow him to escape any and all consequences for the treatment.

However, UEFA rejected his request and the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) upheld the decision in December last year after Nasri appealed. Following the rejection, Nasri left Antalyaspor in the Turkish League and began his exile.

Now, as per latest developments, an appeal from UEFA's ethics and disciplinary inspector against the initial ruling has resulted in an extended exile for Nasri, after the European governing body decided to side with UEFA on the matter. Now the Frenchman will only be allowed to return as a free agent to train with any club after November 2018

A statement from UEFA read:

"The UEFA Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Body's decision of 22 February 2018 is amended as follows: "1. The player Samir Nasri is suspended for eighteen [18] months. This suspension will start running on 1 July 2017.

"2. The player Samir Nasri is allowed to return to training, with any football club starting from 1 November 2018."