Ivory Coast Goalkeeper and Africa Cup of Nations Winner Sylvain Gbohouo Given 18 Month Ban for Doping

• Ivory Coast goalkeeper Sylvain Gbohouo has been handed an 18-month ban by football's world governing body FIFA for a doping violation
• The 33-year-old tested positive last year for the banned substance trimetazidine, a heart medication that the World Anti-Doping Agency categorises as a stimulant
• Gbohou has been an integral part of the Elephants' squad for many years having earned 65 caps, and was part of the team that won the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations

Ivory Coast goalkeeper Sylvain Gbohouo will have to sit out professional football activity for 18 months after being banned by FIFA for a doping violation.

The 33-year-old, who has represented the Elephants in 65 caps, tested positive for the banned substance trimetazidine, a heart medication that the World Anti-Doping Agency stated is a stimulant. Gbohou won the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations with the Ivorians in Equatorial Guinea.

According to SuperSport, Gbohouo was provisionally suspended in December, missing this year's Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon.

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BBC Sport quoted a FIFA statement reading:

"As a result of the presence of the prohibited substance in his sample, the player was found to be in violation of article six of the FIFA Anti-Doping regulations."

BBC Sport reported that in his defence, Gbohouo said that he was prescribed medicine containing the trimetazidine after being taken to a meeting in March 2021 with an ophthalmologist by the Ivorian Football Federation (FIF). The FIF said in response as part of an added defence of the goalkeeper that good eyesight is essential for such a player.

The explanation was that, following an eye examination, he was told to take a medication to improve his retinal blood flow, with Gbohouo telling officials he stopped the treatment halfway through a three-month course because he noticed no improvement.

Taking a look at documents to support this, FIFA adjudged that Gbohouo had unintentionally doped, thus reducing his ban from the standard four years for such an offence to two. The ban was further reduced by six months after Gbohouo cooperated with the FIFA investigators.

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His ban was backdated to 23 December and he will be free to play again on 24 June 2023, which is a day after the next edition of AFCON to be hosted by the Ivory Coast begins.

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