In October 2021 the International Football Federation (FIFA) has reported an anti-doping rule violation against the Salvadorian football player Erick Alejandro Rivera after his sample tested positive for the prohibited substance Clostebol.
After notification a provisional suspension was ordered. The Athlete filed a statement in his defence and he was heard for the FIFA Disciplinary Committee.
The Athlete denied the intentional use of the substance and requested for a reduced sanction. In support he filed an anthropometric study that stated that his physiology had not changed the last years.
The Athlete assumed that one source of the substance could be the Dermovat cream he had used. Another source could be the injection administered by his football team doctor during treatment of his foot injury.
The Committee finds that the presence of a prohibited substance has been established in the Athlete's sample and accordingly that he committed an anti-doping rule violation.
In view of the evidence the Committee establishes that the Dermovat cream in question does not contain prohibited substances. Also the Athlete only had received from his team doctor a Dexamethasone injection for his injury.
As a result the Committee concludes that without corroborating evidence the Athlete failed to demonstrate that the violation was not intentional, nor how the substance had entered his system. The Committee dismissed the filed study because it was considered insufficient as corroborating evidence.
Therefore the FIFA Disciplinary Committee decides on 14 June 2022 to impose a 4 year period of ineligibility on the Athlete, starting on the date of the provisional suspension, i.e. 5 October 2021.
