Manchester City defender Kolo Toure will return to football in September after he was handed a six-month ban for a doping offence, backdated by three months.
The ban was backdated to March 2 this year, when his provisional suspension begun after he tested positive for a listed substance."Manchester City defender Kolo Toure was today suspended following an Independent regulatory Commission hearing at Wembley," the FA said in a statement.
"Toure was handed a six month suspension, commencing from 2 March 2011 (the date of the start of his provisional suspension).
"The player is also to be target tested for a period of two years from 26 May 2011."The Ivory Coast international, 30, pleaded guilty, saying he took a slimming product belonging to his wife without checking its contents.
The FA added that he was spared a lengthier ban because of his previously clean record, and because he admitted the offence.
"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 statement continued.
"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."
"This has been a difficult period for me, and I am sad to have missed the team's triumph of securing Champions League football for Manchester City and also the FA Cup victory at Wembley," Toure told the club's website.
"But I am relieved that I will be able to return to football in September and thank the FA's commission for their understanding about my case in coming to their decision."
Since Toure's ban City went on to win the FA Cup - his brother Yaya Toure scoring the winner against Stoke City- and finished third in the Premier League and qualifying for the Champions League.
http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/26052011/58/premier-league-six-month-ban-kolo-toure.html
