LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — Ukraine international Mykhailo Mudryk, one of the most expensive players in world soccer, risks missing the next European Championship if he loses his appeal against a four-year ban in a doping case.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport confirmed the Chelsea winger, who was signed by the Premier League club for $108 million in 2023, was in the process of appealing against the four-year ban imposed by the English Football Association.
The sides are exchanging written submissions and a hearing has not yet been scheduled, the court said.
There had been no update on the case since the FA said last June that Mudryk had been formally charged with “Anti-Doping Rule Violations alleging the presence and/or use of a prohibited substance.” The exact substance involved has not been confirmed officially.
Mudryk said in December 2024 that he had “ not done anything wrong ” after it was confirmed he had given a drug-test sample that contained a banned substance. He has not played since then.
Mudryk has not commented on the case since. He has posted footage of him training in private on social media in recent months and was seen with Chelsea fans last year when Chelsea won the Conference League final in Poland.
A four-year ban is the starting point for sanctions in a typical first-time doping case under the World Anti-Doping Agency rules used across multiple Olympic sports.
The period is often shortened for mitigating circumstances, such as if an athlete consumed a contaminated supplement or made a mistake with medication, or if the athlete admits an offense at an earlier stage.
Doping sanctions are typically backdated to start from the date an athlete was first provisionally suspended pending a full hearing. The next European Championship will be in the summer of 2028, co-hosted by Britain and Ireland.
Mudryk sat out Ukraine’s recent World Cup qualifying campaign. Ukraine fell short of qualification by losing to Sweden in a playoff in March.
Mudryk was one of the most sought-after players in Europe when he was signed from Shakhtar Donetsk after competing interest from Chelsea’s London rival Arsenal.
The 25-year-old from Ukraine has scored 10 goals in 73 games for Chelsea since then but many of those appearances have been from the bench and his time at the club was widely regarded as underwhelming even before the doping case emerged.
Chelsea gave Mudryk an eight-and-a-half-year contract, an unusually long deal in modern soccer. It is due to run through 2031.
___
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer