Frankfurt am Main/Hamburg (dpa) – Soccer pro Mario Vuskovic of second division Hamburger SV is facing a longer suspension. After a positive doping test, the German Football Association initiated proceedings against the centre-back.
As announced by the DFB, the substance erythropoietin, also known by the abbreviated form Epo, was found in the Croatian during a training check. According to the DFB, the national anti-doping agency Nada carried out the training control.
DFB requests a statement
The DFB’s control committee has initiated proceedings against Vuskovic and asked the 20-year-old for comment. A decision will then be made on how to proceed. In addition, a temporary ban will be imposed, which the association sports court will decide promptly at the start of the new week. Vuskovic was not used in the 4-2 win against SV Sandhausen. He played all other 16 games in the first half of the season.
The HSV confirmed the investigations “by which we were recently surprised”, as announced by the second division. The second in the standings temporarily removed his defender from training and matches to avoid damage to him and to the club. Only a few details on the state of the investigation are known so far, so it is not possible to comment in more detail.
The sample was taken on Sept. 16, Nada informed the German news agency when asked. This period of time is necessary for a thorough analysis procedure. Since then, HSV has played eight second division games and one DFB Cup game under Vuskovic. The cup match against RB Leipzig was lost. HSV won four games in the second division (Düsseldorf, Hannover, Paderborn, Regensburg) and drew once (Kaiserslautern).
The prosecutor confirms the procedure
In 2016, the DFB adapted its rules for judging the game in the event of an anti-doping rule violation to the provisions of the FIFA world association and the UEFA European Football Union. Accordingly, sanctions should only be imposed on a club “if the club can be shown to be at fault or more than two players in the team have violated the anti-doping regulations”. Even today the FIFA guidelines still contain the passage that a team should be sanctioned if more than two players have violated the anti-doping rules.
The Hamburg public prosecutor’s office confirmed the investigation into suspected anti-doping law violations, but did not name names. The HSV reads: “What can we say: We support Mario Vuskovic and the responsible authorities in the investigation and are in close contact with the DFL and the DFB at the same time.”
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