The Court of Arbitration for Sport has shortened Ajax and Cameroon goalkeeper Andre Onana’s doping suspension to nine months (CAS).

UEFA, the governing body of European football, suspended the 25-year-old in February for a year.
After an out-of-competition check on 30 October last year, Onana was found to have the banned substance furosemide in his urine.

He later explained that he had taken a pill containing the substance by mistakenly mistaking his wife’s medicine for aspirin, and that he had requested that the ban be overturned rather than reduced.

The CAS panel… found that there was no significant fault on the part of Andre Onana, who had inadvertently ingested medication meant for someone else,” the court said in a statement. The panel found on this basis that the nine-month prohibition was proportionate to the negligence of the suspension and reduced it by three months, but could not accept in full the request made by the goalkeeper to remove the suspension.”

As a result of the CAS decision, his ban will now expire on November 4, meaning he will miss the start of the season for Dutch champions Ajax but will be available for Cameroon when they host the Africa Cup of Nations in January.

He will also miss the Indomitable Lions’ first four group qualifying games for the 2022 World Cup, which take place in September against Malawi and Ivory Coast, and in October against Mozambique.

He may continue training on 4 November two months prior to the end of the suspension, although he may not play nationally or internationally.

His case was heard and the appeal valued on 2 June, together with the CEO of Ajax, Edwin van der Sar. With this CAS rule, compared with the original suspension, we have an extra 3 months (Onana is available),” he told the Ajax Website.

It was not in vain to move towards the CAS. We stand for a sport that is clean. However, I repeat that we are convinced that Andre accidentally took this medicine and certainly would not do better.