French international footballer Paul Pogba said on Oct 4 that his “nightmare is over” after a four-year ban for doping was reduced to 18 months.

The midfielder, who is under contract with Italian giants Juventus until 2026, will be able to return to competitive football from March 11, four days before his 32nd birthday.

“Finally the nightmare is over. I can look forward to the day I can follow my dreams again,” he said in a statement.

“I always stated I never knowingly breached World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) regulations when I took a nutritional supplement prescribed to me by a doctor, which does not affect or enhance the performance of male athletes.

“I want to place on record my thanks to the Court of Arbitration for Sport’s (CAS) judges who heard my explanation. This has been a hugely distressing period because everything I have worked so hard for has been put on hold.”

Earlier on Oct 4, a spokesperson for CAS confirmed that Pogba’s suspension had been slashed.

“I can confirm the decision – an 18-month suspension with effect from 11 September 2023. The reasons for the decision will follow later,” the spokesperson told AFP.

Pogba tested positive for testosterone in August 2023 after a match between Juventus and Udinese in Italy.

He was provisionally suspended in September, and then banned for four years by the Italian National Anti-Doping Tribunal the following February.

Pogba’s representatives said the testosterone came from a food supplement prescribed by a doctor he consulted in the United States.

After the ban was announced, he posted on his Instagram account that he had “never knowingly or deliberately” taken doping products.

“I am sad, shocked and heartbroken that everything I have built in my professional playing career has been taken away from me,” he wrote at the time.

On Oct 4, after the CAS ruling, his post was wordless, showing only a close-up of two feet wearing Pogba football boots with socks bearing his initials and decorated with the French flag and the two World Cup stars.

A key figure when France won the 2018 World Cup in Russia, Pogba collected four Serie A titles in his first stint at Juventus but had a string of problems, on and off the pitch, after his 2022 return from Manchester United.

During the 2022-23 season, he made just 10 appearances for the club, mainly due to a knee injury that also ruled him out of the World Cup in Qatar, where France lost out to Argentina in the final in December 2022.

He was also the victim of a case of organised extortion, for which six men, including his brother Mathias, were in September ordered to stand trial. AFP

-AFP

Inter and AC Milan on Friday rejected the project to modernise and restructure the iconic San Siro stadium which they share, city mayor Giuseppe Sala announced.”The two clubs said no to the restructuring of San Siro proposed by (construction group) WeBuild,” Sala said after a meeting with officials of the two northern Italian clubs.

“They provided detailed analyses of technical and economic feasibility and their conclusions are that this project cannot be carried out at a sustainable cost and that they do not wish to move in this direction.”

The two clubs would, however, be ready to relaunch the initial project of a new stadium in the immediate vicinity of San Siro, according to Sala.

“We are not starting from scratch on this subject, but there is resistance from local residents,” Sala pointed out.

“They must present us with a project within a fairly short time frame, but building stadiums in Italy is never easy, it is always very complex.”

To increase their commercial revenue both clubs, who have been crowned European champions 10 times between them, have announced that they wish to leave the San Siro, which is owned by the city of Milan.

Officially known as the Giuseppe-Maezza stadium, the 80,000 capacity San Siro is a spectacular concrete structure built in 1926 but which no longer meets their needs.

The two clubs also each have a stadium project in their pipeline.

Earlier this year AC Milan bought land in the suburb of San Donato Milanese, to the south-east of the city, as part of a plan to move away from the San Siro and outside the official boundaries of the city of Milan.

Reigning Serie A champions Inter have their sights set on the towns of Rozzano and Assago, just south of Milan, after having also sounded out the possibility of building on former industrial land in populous northern suburb Sesto San Giovanni.

In 2026, San Siro will host the opening ceremony of the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics.

It should also be the scene of the 2027 Champions League final, which according to the Italian press could be called into question amid the ongoing uncertainty over the stadium’s future.

-AFP

Victor Osimhen has not been included in Napoli’s official 23-man Serie A squad for this season, after the Nigerian striker’s expected move away from the club failed to materialise.

Osimhen’s 26 goals helped Napoli to their Scudetto win two seasons ago, but it has all turned sour since and although the want-away player is still at the club, for now he plays no part in their plans.

The 25-year-old signed a contract extension with Napoli last December, keeping him at the club until 2026 and with a reported release clause of 130 million euros.

A month later, club president Aurelio De Laurentiis said Osimhen would leave at the end of the season, and in recent days his expected destination appeared to be Chelsea or Saudi Pro League club Al-Ahli.

Negotiations went on until the transfer window closed in both Italy and England on Friday, but with Osimhen’s wage demands apparently not met by Chelsea it appeared he was on his way to Saudi Arabia.

Napoli, however, did not accept the offer from Al-Ahli, who then signed Ivan Toney from Brentford for a reported 40 million pounds, and signed Belgian Romelu Lukaku from Chelsea

-Reuters