Grieving Livermore set to escape drugs ban

Ian Watson
Jake Livermore Hull TEAMtalk

Jake Livermore: Could return for Hull after avoiding FA ban

Hull City midfielder Jake Livermore is set to avoid a ban for his failed drugs test after the FA took into account his extenuating personal circumstances.

Livermore tested positive for cocaine in April, and was initially expected to be handed a lengthy ban from the game. Failing an in-competition drugs test for a Class A drug carries a potential two-year ban.

However, it has since emerged that Livermore turned to the drug in order to cope with a personal tragedy.  Livermore suffered from depression after the loss of his new-born baby. He is thought to have taken the drug the evening following the inquest into his daughter’s death.

The circumstances gave the FA a difficult decision to make, and the governing body have reportedly decided against enforcing a ban.

The FA’s rules on exceptional or extenuating circumstances in drugs cases are as follows:

Decisions taken under these Regulations regarding exceptional or specific circumstances must be consistent. Therefore the following principles shall apply –

(a) Exceptional or specific circumstances will exist only where the circumstances are truly exceptional and not in the vast majority of cases;

(b) The evidence must be decisive and specific to explain the departure from expected standards of behaviour;

(c) A Player’s or Participant’s minority is not in itself a justification of a reduction of the minimum penalty, but youth and inexperience are factors to be taken into account in determining fault.