When it was announced last month that Mamadou Sakho had failed a drugs test, it seemed that the Frenchman was due for a lengthy spell on the sidelines.
The Liverpool defender was given a provisional 30-day ban by Fifa after he decided not to contest the positive result, but now those 30 days have passed without further charge from the powers that be.
According to French publication L’Équipe, the 26-year-old will face no ban from the situation at all.
But while that sounds like good news to Liverpool fans who had feared he may miss up to two years, the French paper are claiming that Sakho will face no further suspension because the substance he was originally banned for isn’t even on Fifa’s list of banned substances.
Sakho’s suspension ruled him out of the end of Liverpool’s season, which included a 3-1 defeat to Sevilla in the Europa League final on May 18 – as well as being removed from FIFA 16 in the wake of the announcement.
While there’s no way to know if the result would have been different had the Frenchman lined out for the Reds, plenty of the Anfield faithful are still fairly ticked off that the centre-back has been punished despite seemingly doing nothing wrong.
https://twitter.com/Andrew_Heaton/status/736564358172545024
If French reports are true, than we should sue @UEFA for suspending one of our best CB's for 8 games. Sakho says no.https://t.co/eBHaLB3KnW
— Ben (@ben_blogs) May 28, 2016
If that fat burner isn't banned, surely Liverpool are going to be fuming that Sakho missed games like the Europa League final?
— Daniel Storey (@danielstorey85) May 28, 2016
