Kolo Toure Given 6 Month Ban For Failed Drugs Test

Toure can resume playing in early September

Kolo Toure has been banned from all football for 6 months after failing a drugs test in February.

The Manchester City defender has been banned for 6 months in total, although the ban has been backdated to March 2nd, meaning he will be eligible to play again on September 2nd, just 3 weeks into the new season. Toure claimed that he failed the test due to taking one of his wife's dietary pills, but was still found guilty of using a banned substance.

The Ivory Coast man missed the crucial Champions League run in for his club, who ended the season in 3rd place, 9 points behind eventual champions Manchester United and will now miss pre-season with the club too. However, rival fans will be furious over the matter as he is banned during the close season - where he wouldn't of been playing football anyway.

Fans of neighbours Manchester United will be especially upset at the decision, after their defender Rio Ferdinand was banned for 8 months mid-season for MISSING a drugs test - which he later passed. Paddy Kenny was banned 2 years ago for 9 months for taking a banned substance which was in cough medicine.

Rio Ferdinand was banned for 8 months for missing a drugs test

Toure, who signed for City in a £15M move from Arsenal could have faced a ban of up to 2 years for this offence, and will feel he's gotten away lightly with the decision of 6 months including the pre-season months.

However, a decision was made during the hearing at Wembley - which lasted nearly 10 hours - that the player will be subject to target testing for a period of 2 years starting immediately.

The FA statement read;

"Manchester City defender Kolo Toure was today suspended following an Independent regulatory Commission hearing at Wembley. Toure was handed a six month suspension, commencing from 2 March 2011. The player is also to be target tested for a period of two years from 26 May 2011. The criterion in assessing any reduction in what would otherwise be the minimum penalty of two years’ suspension is the player’s degree of fault. The player accepted he was at fault and with that concession we agree. He was at fault in the limited and perfunctory efforts he made in relation to the water tablets; the checks he made in relation to those tablets were inadequate and fell some way below what it would be reasonable to expect of a professional footballer in these circumstances."