Bucs star gets four-year ban
Orlando Pirates’ midfielder Thandani Ntshumayelo has been banned from playing for four years after testing positive for cocaine.
Ntshumayelo tested positive in a routine drug test after the Absa Premiership game between Orlando Pirates and Platinum Stars on January 9. He appeared before an anti-doping tribunal panel on Tuesday and pleaded guilty to taking the substance.
The four-year ban is the harshest sentence a player can get for testing positive for cocaine.
“It ranges from two to four years,” SA Institute for Drug Free Sport (Saids) CEO Khalid Galant said yesterday.
“Thandani pleaded guilty and could have presented evidence for the sentence to be reduced… there needs to be a specific framework and criteria for the sentence to be reduced, his legal representative obviously didn’t convince the panel.”
According to Power FM, a Saids statement said Ntshumayelo “confessed evidence that he did take three lines of cocaine at a party and that he was influenced by friends to take cocaine and as a result committed a mistake.
“The athlete further confessed that he did take the substance three days prior to the date he was tested. The athlete further testified that he took the substance knowing that it was cocaine and that it was a banned substance.”
Ntshumayelo has 21 days to appeal the sentence, from the day it was handed down, which was Tuesday.
“You do have to have grounds to appeal,” noted Galant.
Ntshumayelo, 26, started his career at SuperSport United, before moving to Pirates in 2012. Pirates administrator Floyd Mbele said the club could not comment until they received the official verdict from the Premier Soccer League. – jontym@citizen.co.za