2024-08-29 11:51:37
These are tough days for Mario Vuskovic. The Croatian has been banned for doping until autumn 2026. Now he is speaking out for the first time about the devastating verdict.
Mario Vuskovic of Hamburger SV has once again protested his innocence after the four-year doping ban imposed on him. “I have the feeling that we live in a world where truth and justice no longer mean anything,” the 22-year-old Croatian wrote on Instagram.
He therefore wanted to send a message to those who were endangering his entire life, Vuskovic wrote: “I have done nothing wrong and I will not stop fighting until I have proven my innocence.”
In the appeal process, the International Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) not only confirmed the ban on the defender from second division football club Hamburger SV. The highest sports judges also upheld the appeal of the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and even increased the sentence to four years.
It is unclear what will happen to Vuskovic at HSV. The club and Vuskovic want to examine the reasons for the verdict carefully first, it was said after the verdict, which neither the player nor HSV had expected. They had expected an acquittal.
“You can be sure that I will be successful and come back stronger than ever,” wrote Vuskovic. The Croatian was found guilty of taking the blood doping agent EPO by the German Football Association’s sports court in 2023 and was given a two-year ban retroactively from November 15, 2022. This has now even been extended until autumn 2026.