Ex LaLiga player Angulo has doping ban raised to four years

Ecuadorian striker José Angulo had his ban for testing positive for cocaine raised from one year to four years on Monday after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) upheld FIFA's appeal against his original sanction.

Angulo, who joined Spanish club Granada last year but never played for them, failed a drug test with his former Ecuadorian club Independiente del Valle after the first leg of the final of the Copa Libertadores in July 2016. He was suspended for 12 months by a tribunal of south American confederation CONMEBOL but FIFA appealed against that punishment in April this year.

'Following the appeal of FIFA, CAS heard the parties and scientific experts on 31 October 2017,' a statement said. 'The CAS Panel in charge of the arbitration has determined that the facts submitted by the player did not match with the evidence produced by the scientific experts, has set aside the CONMEBOL decision and replaced it with a new decision in which José Enrique Angulo Caicedo is sanctioned with a four-year period of ineligibility, commencing on 20 July 2016,' it said. Angulo, 22, returned to Independiente del Valle after his ill-fated move to Granada. No further details were provided.