PARIS — Peru captain Paolo Guerrero will miss the World Cup after been banned from football for a year for failing a drugs test, FIFA's disciplinary committee announced on Friday.
The 33-year-old attacker, who plays for Brazilian giants Flamengo, was handed the ban after "testing positive for cocaine metabolite benzoylecgonine".
The drug control came following a match in Argentine capital Buenos Aires on Oct. 5, the world football governing body's watchdog said in a statement.
The former Bayern Munich striker missed Peru's playoff victory over New Zealand, which made the South American nation the 32nd and last country to qualify for the World Cup, after being provisionally suspended for 30 days for the offense on Nov. 3.
That suspension was then extended by 20 days on Tuesday before the final verdict was given on Friday.
Guerrero will now miss Peru's first World Cup since 1982, his country deprived of one of its most important attacking players as it prepares to face France, Australia and Denmark in Group C.
Surprise witness at
FIFA trial —singer Jonas
Boy band star Kevin Jonas testified Thursday as a surprise witness for the prosecution at the FIFA corruption trial.
The member of the Jonas Brothers, dressed all in black, took the stand for less than three minutes to confirm that a concert allegedly attended by one of the suspects had actually taken place.
On trial over the largest graft scandal in world soccer history are three South American Football executives accused of taking huge bribes in exchange for the rights to broadcast Football tournaments.
One of those three, Juan Angel Napout, of Paraguay, former vice president of the South American Football federation Conmebol, allegedly received $10,000 tickets to a Paul McCartney concert in Argentina in 2010.
This was allegedly part of a larger bribe of a million dollars to secure the rights to the Copa America in 2015. Napout's lawyers have questioned that such a concert ever took place.
Jonas was produced as a witness to say that in fact it did because he himself went to it. "Any time you get to see Paul McCartney, it's pretty special," Jonas, 30, testified. Jonas has no relation to Napout and did not attend the concert with him. He took the stand simply to say the concert was held.
The other two defendants on trial in New York are Jose Maria Marin, 85, former president of Brazil's Football Confederation, and Manuel Burga, who led soccer in Peru until 2014. All three are charged with racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering.
The careers of the heartthrob boy band the Jonas Brothers — Kevin, Nick and Joe — took off with the Disney movie "Camp Rock" in 2008. — AFP
