Brazilian forward Dodo will appeal against his two-year doping ban before the Switzerland Supreme Court after the Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld his original suspension earlier this week.
The 34-year-old former Botafogo striker returned a positive test for the amphetamine fenpropex during a routine test on 14 June following a game against Vasco de Gama and is set to be banned until November 2009.
Dodo had already had his contract with Fluminense cancelled last month after he left the stadium early when he was substituted in a game against Sport.
‘We decided to go to an ordinary court as we have attended every sport tribunal,’ Dodo's lawyer Segundo Bichara Neto told A Tarde newspaper.
‘Dodo's defence will be in charge of a Swiss lawyer, a very good professional who is highly respected. He is studying the case now.’
Dodo was initially banned for 120 days by the Brazilian Tribunal of Sport Justice (STJD), but was acquitted after an appeal following evidence supplied by Botafogo that the test was a result of contaminated caffeine capsules.
FIFA and the World Anti-Doping Agency both appealed against the decision and on Thursday the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) upheld the ban.
But Bichara Neto insists CAS do not have jurisdiction over STJD.
‘According to the Brazilian laws the STJD is an independent organisation of the Brazilian Football Confederation, so CAS don't have any power to cancel that decision,’ he added.
