21 July 2017

CAS upholds the two-year period of ineligibility imposed on Roman Eremenko

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has issued its decision in the arbitration procedure between the Finnish footballer Roman Eremenko and the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). The two-year suspension imposed on the player by the UEFA Appeals Body (UEFA AB) on 2 March 2017 is confirmed. Furthermore, the CAS Panel has fixed the start date of the suspension at 6 October 2016, the date on which the Player’s provisional suspension commenced.

On 14 September 2016, following a match of the UEFA Champion’s League 2016/2017 between the Player’s club CSKA Moskow and Bayer Leverkusen, the Player underwent an in-competition doping control which revealed the presence of cocaine and its metabolites. On 6 October 2016, UEFA opened an investigation and imposed a provisional suspension on Roman Eremenko. On 17 November 2016 the Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Body of UEFA (UEFA CEDB) issued a decision imposing on the player a suspension from participating in any football related activity for a period of two (2) years. Roman Eremenko appealed this decision to the UEFA Appeals Body (UEFA AB) which confirmed the two-year period, but with the wording “the CSKA Moskva player Roman Eremenko is suspended for a period of two (2) years”, since the wording used by the UEFA CEDB “from participating in any football-related activity” did not feature in the applicable anti-doping rules.

Roman Eremenko filed an appeal at the CAS on 13 April 2017 seeking to overturn the suspension. The arbitration was referred to a Panel of CAS arbitrators who held a hearing with the parties in Lausanne, Switzerland on 11 July 2017. The CAS Panel found that a two-year period of ineligibility was the appropriate sanction and since the UEFA AB decision did not specify the date of commencement of the suspension, found it proper to clarify the point and modify the UEFA AB decision accordingly, in order to confirm that the Player is suspended for a period of 2 years from 6 October 2016.

• This media release was originally published by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on 21 July 2017. To access the original, please click here.

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