In March 2019 the National Anti-Doping Commission (ADC) has reported an anti-doping rule violation against the football player Jason Mifsud after he tested positive for the prohibited substance Cocaine. After notification a provisional suspension was ordered. The Athlete filed a statement in his defence and he was heard for the National Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panel.
The Athlete stated that the use of Cocaine was recreational out-of-competition in a context not related to sport performance. He disputed the notification in English to inform him about the test result and testing his B-sample because he didn’t understand English. He argued that this deprives him from the possibility of contesting any such information and he claimed that the costs of the B-sample testing was too expensive to prove his innocence.
The Panel holds that the Athlete’s lack of attention to a communication received from the ADC cannot be justified since he discarded the notification letter for months while it was send subsequent to the Doping Control and thus he could well have been presumed that any communication from the ADC would have been related to such testing. Nevertheless the Panel believes that any communication sent to the Athlete should have been provided first in the Maltese language and then if the English language when needed.
Considering the evidence in this case the Panel deems that the Athlete failed to contest the positive test, failed to establish how the substance entered his system nor that he bears No Fault or Negligence.
Therefore the National Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panel decides on 30 July 2019 to impose a 4 year period of ineligibility on the Athlete starting on the date of the provisional suspension, i.e. on 23 March 2019.
