'Bitter' Davids To Sue Over Drugs Ban
Monday 17th September 2001
Juventus midfielder Edgar Davids has vowed to sue the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) and the Italian football federation (FIGC) following his ban after he tested positive for nandrolone. "It has left a bitter taste in my mouth," the Holland midfielder said.
Davids was initially banned for five months, but that sentence was cut short at the end of August. Davids himself has always maintained his innocence, claiming that the unnaturally high levels of nandolone discovered in his blood were caused by a homeopathic medicine he had been using to recover from a fever.
The former Ajax star insisted that his case was unlike any of the others that had affected players in Serie A which is why he planned to take further action.
"I will sue the Italian Olympic Committee and the Italian football federation for damages," he declared.
"I'm happy about the reduced bans for the other players, but fixing all the bans at the same length has been a political decision. Not all the cases were the same and certainly my case was different."
Juventus president Vittorio Chiusano, a lawyer who normally takes a back seat role at Juventus behind the Agnellis and general manager Luciano Moggi, told a disciplinary panel about Davids' particular case.
He explained: "Davids took a homeopathic medicine that anybody can find in the pharmacy not only in Holland. It's a dietetic product on which the Florence laboratory, at the attorney's request, completed some tests. These tests demonstrated that there is the chance of a connection between the product and a positive result of the doping test.
"That's a real and well founded possibility. And Judge Aiello remembered during the trial that only Juventus presented this kind of evidences of the clubs that had players involved in doping cases."
Davids is set to make his comeback in the Champions' League clash against Celtic on Tuesday night.
"I hope the fans will welcome me as they did before my ban," he said. "When I couldn't play and was in the stands, they used to sing my name. I hope to repay their affection and put all my efforts onto the pitch.
"I think I'm in a good physical condition, because when my team-mates played I went on training and training. The only danger is that I have to avoid overdoing it. This is always the main risk after a long break."
