Paul Pogba doping ban reduced to 18 months

Juventus and France midfielder has four-year ban reduced on appeal and free to play again from March 11, 2025

Paul Pogba was banned in February 2024 after he tested positive for testosterone metabolites following Juventus' opening match of the 2023/24 Serie A season. AFP

Paul Pogba will be free to return to competitive football next year after having his four-year ban for doping reduced to 18 months.

The French World Cup winner, who is under contract with Italian giants Juventus until 2026, will be able to start playing again from March 11 next year, four days before his 32nd birthday.

"Finally the nightmare is over. I can look forward to the day when I can follow my dreams again," Pogba said in a statement released to Britain's Press Association.

"I always stated that 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 play with integrity and, although I must accept that this is a strict liability offence, I want to place on record my thanks to the Court of Arbitration for Sport's judges who heard my explanation.

"This has been a hugely distressing period in my life because everything I have worked so hard for has been put on hold."

Earlier Friday, 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 CAS spokesperson told AFP.

Pogba tested positive for testosterone metabolites following Juventus' opening match of the 2023/24 Serie A season against Udinese on August 20, during which he was an unused substitute.

He also made appearances off the bench for Juventus against Bologna on August 27 and Empoli on September 3, before his suspension of four years was announced by the Italian National Anti-Doping Tribunal in 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, Pogba 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 Friday evening, 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 title in Russia, Pogba collected four Serie A titles in his first stint at Juventus. He became the world’s most expensive footballer when he moved back to Manchester United from Juve for £89 million in 2016, before rejoining the Italian giants on a free transfer in the summer of 2022.

During the 2022/23 season, Pogba made just 10 appearances for Juve, mainly due to a knee injury that also ruled him out of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, where France lost the final to Argentina on penalties.

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