PARIS — French soccer player Paul Pogba’s doping suspension has been cut to 18 months from an initial four years, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) said on Friday.
"The suspension is now 18 months, starting Sept. 11, 2023," CAS director general Matthieu Reeb told Reuters.
Paul Pogba ban reduced
Paul Pogba: “Finally, the nightmare is over”.
“I can look forward to the day when I can follow my dreams again”.“I always stated that I never knowingly breached Anti-Doping regulations, I play with integrity and I want to thank the Court of Arbitration who heard my… pic.twitter.com/oFl48oSQdS
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) October 4, 2024
| Paul Pogba can start training with Juventus from January and start playing matches in March! ✅
He just had his 4 year drugs ban REDUCED to 18 months by CAS, reports @SamiMokbel81_DM. pic.twitter.com/m4FgRFXa1K— EuroFoot (@eurofootcom) October 4, 2024
The France international was provisionally suspended by Italy's national anti-doping organization (NADO Italia) in September 2023 after testing positive for DHEA - a banned substance that raises levels of testosterone.
The 31-year-old Pogba, who has a contract with Italy's Juventus until June 2026, denied any wrongdoing and said in February he would appeal to CAS.
The doping test was performed after Juve's 3-0 season-opening victory in Serie A at Udinese on Aug. 20, 2023.
The tribunal said it had detected prohibited "non-endogenous testosterone metabolites", adding that the results were "consistent with the exogenous (external) origin of the target compounds".
(Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
