The hardest penalty in history: Two players never played again!

Adrian Mutu

7 months

Adrian Mutu’s wayward career began to go wrong in 2004. When he was a Chelsea footballer, he tested positive for cocaine in an anti-doping test which earned him a seven-month ban. But it did not punish it. A few years later, in 2010 and playing for Fiorentina, the talented striker was banned again, this time for another 6 months, for another positive result.

9

Rio Ferdinand and Ivan Toney

8 months

Both are English and both are among the ten most exemplary penalties in all of history. The Manchester United central defender was the first. He refused to take a random test in September 2003 and in December was given an 8-month ban and a £50,000 fine for his behaviour. It will be difficult for him to miss the World Cup in Portugal.
Toney, for his part, was cleared this week for participating in multiple bets.

8

Eric Cantona and Marcos Bosch

9 months

Coincidentally or not, both Manchester United players, like Río Ferdinand. The Australian goalkeeper was also a victim of cocaine and was eventually prosecuted by the anti-doping agency in 2002. He was sacked by Chelsea and given a 9-month ban. He partially developed a scandal with his wife Sophie Anderton, where he entered the world of drugs and left high-level football. Ended up in depression.
The Cantona case has nothing to do with it. One of football’s bad boys revived United in 1992, but his violent temper and violence took its toll. January 25, 1995 was the day of the famous image where he kicked Matthew Simmons, a Crystal Palace fan, in the chest, which was sanctioned by FIFA for 9 months.

87

Hector Robles

The surprising thing about the case of Héctor Robles is that it all happened in a Chilean soccer friendly. Palestinian player, his cables were crossed in a friendly against the Honduran team and he attacked the match referee. He received a one-year ban.

76

Maradona (twice)

15 months

Diego Armando Maradona is one of the best players in history, for some the best, but he also had a dark time. And it was that he was allowed twice with a 15 month sentence and all for his drug problems. The first time it happened was in 1991 and soon it fell again and at the worst moment, it turned positive during the 1994 World Cup.

5

Joey Barton and Samir Nasri

18 months

The most recent case is definitely that of Samir Nasri. He was a Sevilla player, on loan from Manchester City, when news broke that he had received a 6-month ban for administering 500 milliliters of a banned vitamin complex intravenously at a clinic in the United States. But it escalated because, after Sevilla presented a Therapeutic Use Authorization, UEFA rejected it and the punishment was increased to 18 months.
The likes of which Joey Barton, the betting kingpin and another bad boy of English football, must meet. And it is that the English midfielder placed money in 1,260 games between 2006 and 2016 until he was caught for it, for which he received the massive penalty that ended his career, in addition to a fine of 30,000 pounds.

4

David Bystron and Juanito

2 years

Bystron was in Pilsen when the UEFA Disciplinary Committee banned him for two years without playing football in an almost unprecedented action. It was 2012 and the reason was that he failed an anti-doping test after a Champions League match, although it is not yet known what exactly was found, there were rumors of cocaine or ecstasy, something Bystron denied.
He is not the only one with that sanction. A few years ago the mythical Juanito also took the cake. Although for another reason and that he could not control his aggressiveness, attacking the arbitration team in the 1978 Euro Cup.

3

Juanita

5 years

He must have known that punishment to Juanito little by little, because he sinned again and the animal was more than that. Nobody didn’t see what he did in the 1987 semifinals against Bayern Munich. After a completely criminal encounter with Matthaus in Chendo, Juanito approached the German and stomped on his head, an action that earned him a 5-year ban.

2

Enoch West

30 years

You have to go back to the black and white era of football to come up with the second most brutal penalty in all of history. 30 years fell to Enoch West, who was one of eight involved in a 1915 betting scandal between United and Liverpool players. They were given alternatives: fight in World War I and come back to play, or not go and face a 30-year ban. The only one who didn’t accept was West.

1

Roberto Rojas and Kevin Sammut

‘Life imprisonment’

They are the only two cases in history where they were never allowed to play football again. It has nothing to do with each other. The lightest was certainly that of Sammut, who was sentenced to life by the UFEA after, as a Maltese footballer, he was accused of being involved in match-fixing against Norway. At first he suffered a 10-year ban, but in the end it was forever.
A very bad case, but that remains an anecdote next to Roberto Rojas’s, making it look like a movie. In a qualifying match for the 1989 World Cup, the Chilean goalkeeper was theoretically hit by a flare launched from the stands and caused a lot of blood on his head. The fight was canceled because his teammates alleged that the fight was dangerous. Well, in a later study, it was discovered thanks to the recordings that Rojas was not hit by the flare, but instead injured himself with a knife that he kept in one of his gloves. Ironically, it also led to Chile’s disqualification for the World Cup in 1994. Rojas never played again, although in 2001 FIFA overturned his punishment after requesting it.