NAPOLI'S director of sport Pierpaolo Marino has described the one-year ban handed to midfielder Daniele Mannini for a procedural doping violation as a "colossal injustice".
Mannini was handed the suspension today by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) after arriving late for an anti-doping test while playing for Brescia last season.
Mannini's former Brescia team-mate Davide Possanzini has also been hit with a 12-month ban after both were found guilty "of non-cooperation with anti-doping officials" following the club's Serie B match against Chievo on December 1, 2007.
Mannini, 25, and Possanzini, 32, were issued with 15-day suspensions by the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI) in March of last year, but that ruling was challenged by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), who took the case to CAS.
Today CAS found in favour of WADA, stating that CONI had applied the wrong sanction to the players, and increased the ban.
The pair will be eligible to resume their careers on January 14, 2010 after CAS confirmed their original 15-day punishments would be taken into account.
Mannini left Brescia in January 2008 to sign a deal with Serie A outfit Napoli.
"I believe it is a colossal injustice," Marino told Italy's Sky television network.
"We have inherited this matter when we acquired Mannini from Brescia.
"I have to say that it is absurd that the system sacrifices as martyrs players who did not give a positive doping test.
"The obvious question is: is it right to compromise the careers of two players who did not return positive tests but are equally considered guilty?
"I think we are facing a colossal injustice."
CAS confirmed the reasons for the players' suspensions in a statement.
"The CAS Panel considered the behaviour of the Players at the time of the anti-doping control also amounted to a violation of Article 2.3 of the World Anti-Doping Code (failure to submit to sample collection), and that by ignoring this fact, [the CONI panel] misapplied the rules, and in turn, applied the wrong sanction," the statement read.
"On the basis of the very particular circumstances of this dispute, the Panel ruled that although the players remain at fault, they were entitled to benefit from a finding of 'no significant fault', allowing their sanction to be reduced to one half of the minimum period of two years ineligibility otherwise applicable.
"In light of this, the CAS Panel has decided to suspend the players for a period of one year."
Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis responded by stating that Mannini had the unswerving support of the club.
"Mannini has our solidarity and the entire support of the club," De Laurentiis told Radio Marte. "It is a painful sentence because Daniele is a serious professional who always displays exemplary behaviour.
"He is a serious and correct person and I am sure that his behaviour was misunderstood.
"Mannini has to not get depressed and he has to know that we are close him.
"He has to react to this adversity and return stronger then before."
Mannini's former Brescia team-mate Davide Possanzini has also been hit with a 12-month ban after both were found guilty "of non-cooperation with anti-doping officials" following the club's Serie B match against Chievo on December 1, 2007.
Mannini, 25, and Possanzini, 32, were issued with 15-day suspensions by the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI) in March of last year, but that ruling was challenged by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), who took the case to CAS.
Today CAS found in favour of WADA, stating that CONI had applied the wrong sanction to the players, and increased the ban.
The pair will be eligible to resume their careers on January 14, 2010 after CAS confirmed their original 15-day punishments would be taken into account.
Mannini left Brescia in January 2008 to sign a deal with Serie A outfit Napoli.
"I believe it is a colossal injustice," Marino told Italy's Sky television network.
"We have inherited this matter when we acquired Mannini from Brescia.
"I have to say that it is absurd that the system sacrifices as martyrs players who did not give a positive doping test.
"The obvious question is: is it right to compromise the careers of two players who did not return positive tests but are equally considered guilty?
"I think we are facing a colossal injustice."
CAS confirmed the reasons for the players' suspensions in a statement.
"The CAS Panel considered the behaviour of the Players at the time of the anti-doping control also amounted to a violation of Article 2.3 of the World Anti-Doping Code (failure to submit to sample collection), and that by ignoring this fact, [the CONI panel] misapplied the rules, and in turn, applied the wrong sanction," the statement read.
"On the basis of the very particular circumstances of this dispute, the Panel ruled that although the players remain at fault, they were entitled to benefit from a finding of 'no significant fault', allowing their sanction to be reduced to one half of the minimum period of two years ineligibility otherwise applicable.
"In light of this, the CAS Panel has decided to suspend the players for a period of one year."
Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis responded by stating that Mannini had the unswerving support of the club.
"Mannini has our solidarity and the entire support of the club," De Laurentiis told Radio Marte. "It is a painful sentence because Daniele is a serious professional who always displays exemplary behaviour.
"He is a serious and correct person and I am sure that his behaviour was misunderstood.
"Mannini has to not get depressed and he has to know that we are close him.
"He has to react to this adversity and return stronger then before."
Copyright (c) Press Association
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