September 27 – FIFA have overturned a provisional suspension handed down to an unnamed Bulgarian international for a failed drugs test.
World football’s governing body had initially banned the player after he returned a test with “an adverse analytical finding” following Bulgaria’s World Cup qualifier in Malta on September 10.
But the suspension has now been wiped out after advice from FIFA’s medical experts.
“The chairman of the FIFA Disciplinary Committee has revoked his decision to suspend a Bulgarian international footballer for a period of 30 days,” said FIFA in a statement.
“The decision was taken following clarification by medical bodies, on the basis of which it appears that there is no circumstantial evidence that anti-doping rules have been violated.”
Bulgarian media identified the player as Yordan Minev, a 32-year-old defender with champions Ludogorets Razgrad. Minev did not play in Malta but the two players chosen at random can be selected from the entire squad.
Bulgarian team doctors had expressed surprise at the initial suspension as they maintained that Minev had been given a pain killing injection before the match for a knee injury and that this had been documented to FIFA.
Meanwhile, Jamaican international Jermaine Hue has been banned for nine months and team doctor Carlton Fraser for four years by FIFA for doping violations.
Both had been provisionally barred in August following a doping control test conducted after a World Cup qualifier against Honduras on June 11, but were not identified until the case as proven.
The Jamaica case focuses yet more bad publicity on the Caribbean nation in the wake of a major doping scandal involving Jamaican athletes ahead of the recent world track and field championships in Moscow.
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