Positive doping test: Juan Miritello handed one-month ban | OneFootball

The Defensa y Justicia forward was suspended for one month by Conmebol after an adverse analytical result in the Copa Sudamericana. The sanction will be completed next week.

Conmebol has officially announced the sanction of Defensa y Justicia forward Juan Bautista Miritello after the adverse analytical result detected following the 1-1 draw between the Halcón de Florencio Varela and Universidad Católica of Ecuador in the 2025 Copa Sudamericana. The player was suspended for one month, so he will be able to play again in the coming days.

According to the Conmebol Disciplinary Commission in a resolution published this Thursday, the anti-doping test conducted on May 14 returned a positive result. Miritello was found guilty of violating articles 6 and 7 of the Anti-Doping Regulations and received a one-month suspension, counted from September 30, 2025, the date on which the provisional suspension began.

As a result, the forward will serve the entirety of his penalty by the end of next week and will be eligible to return to training and competing with Mariano Soso’s team. The decision also allows for the possibility of an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) within the next 21 days, although the player’s camp is not expected to pursue further action.

The case came to light in May, when TyC Sports confirmed that the 26-year-old footballer had tested positive for a recreational drug, in a low dose, after the match in which the Florencio Varela team drew with the Ecuadorians. Since then, he had been provisionally suspended, unable to play in official matches.

Miritello, born in Luján, is going through an important stage in his career: he played in all of Halcón’s Copa Sudamericana matches, while in the Torneo Clausura he had recorded four goals in ten games and two assists before the sanction. In total, he has scored 16 goals in 69 matches with Defensa, and had established himself as one of the team’s standout players.

Trained in Defensa’s youth academy, Miritello also played for Flandria, Real Pilar, Talleres (RE), San Martín de Tucumán, and Asteras Tripolis of Greece before returning to the club. Now, with the sanction almost fully served, the forward aims to return to competition before the end of the month.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.