The sports court of the German Football Association (DFB) has suspended Mario Vuskovic from the second division club Hamburger SV for two years because of EPO doping. The defender and HSV announced that they would appeal.
The DFB had previously announced the verdict in the proceedings on Thursday afternoon, which had developed into a fundamental dispute about the Epo analysis. “As a result of the proceedings, the DFB sports court is convinced with sufficient certainty that the analyzes of the A and B samples of the player’s urine in the laboratory in Kreischa have shown the presence of exogenous erythropetin, EPO for short. This is a prohibited so-called ‘non-specific substance’, which constitutes a punishable violation of the DFB’s anti-doping regulations,” explained Stephan Oberholz, chairman of the DFB sports court.
DFB does not assume “structured doping”.
Originally, Vuskovic had threatened a four-year ban, as has been the case with EPO offenses up to now. According to Oberholz, however, the sports court “deliberately deviated from this. On the one hand, Mario Vuskovic is to be treated as a first offender, on the other hand, the analysis results show only a small amount of Epo, so that structured doping cannot be assumed. The effects of a long ban would 21-year-old professional soccer players and team athletes who are still in the process of development more intensively than an individual athlete, also from an economic point of view,” said the presiding judge.
HSV board member Boldt: “Will appeal”
HSV board member Jonas Boldt announced that he would appeal the verdict before the DFB federal court within a week. “We took note of the decision of the DFB sports court and, after an exchange with Mario’s lawyers, immediately agreed that the judgment should be appealed. We will now deal with the reasoning of the judgment at our leisure,” said Boldt.
The National Anti-Doping Agency of Germany (NADA) and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) can also appeal. According to NADA, she will examine the reasoning behind the judgement.
A and B samples at Vuskovic positive
Vuskovic’s suspension is retroactive to November 15, 2022. The defender has been suspended since then. During a training check on September 16 last year, exogenous Epo was found in the A and B samples of his urine. The sports court did not allow a C-sample requested by the Vuskovic side. The defender denies having doped.
When the verdict was announced, Oberholz replied that the defense had not been able to provide evidence of a false doping finding. The objections raised against the analysis procedure and above all against its positive result are ultimately not significant to be able to justify serious doubts about the positive Epo findings. The scientific considerations and points of criticism put forward were predominantly of a rather abstract and speculative nature.
Vuskovic side rejected an amicable solution
After three days of the trial, the sports court was initially unable to make a judgment. Therefore, after the third day of negotiations on March 17, Chairman Oberholz announced “a written decision within the next two weeks at the latest”. This has now been communicated to Vuskovic and HSV. Before his announcement, Oberholz had unsuccessfully sought an amicable solution between the DFB control committee and the Vuskovic side.
“The verdict was apparently accommodating and the athlete was accommodated a bit in this case.”
— ARD doping expert Hajo Seppelt
According to information from the “Hamburger Abendblatt”, the defender had been offered a one-year ban. He said he refused with reference to his innocence.
Vuskovic case sparks policy dispute over Epo analytics
The Sports Court’s decision in the landmark dispute over Epo analytics is also a victory for WADA. Four experts hired by HSV had unanimously questioned the positive result of the analysis laboratory in Kreischa, accredited by the World Anti-Doping Agency, as “false positive”. Laboratory head Sven Voss, on the other hand, assured in an interview with the NDR that Vuskovic’s sample looked exactly like “a positive sample should look like”. Chief Prosecutor Anton Nachreiner agreed. “I consider this doping allegation to be proven without any problems,” he said in his closing speech.
At the same time, he had pleaded for a reduced sentence “for a 21-year-old young man who may have made a mistake once and before a probably very successful career would be ruined”. Vuskovic’s lawyer Joachim Rain saw no reason for a conviction: “We are applying for acquittal because Mario Vuskovic did not dope.”
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Current | 03/30/2023 | 14:00 clock
