Can Messi and Argentina lose the World Cup after Papu Gómez's doping?

Total surprise in the world of football! Alejandro Papu Gómez, former player for Sevilla in Spain, current player for Monza in Italy and deleted from the Argentina national team after strange events that no one has been able to clarify but that could clearly have to do with this situation, has tested positive in a previous doping to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, which has been a real shock in various latitudes.

The prohibited substance that Alejandro Gómez consumed is fined by the World Anti-Doping Code. It was in November 2022 when the player underwent that analysis that returned an adverse result. Despite the situation, the midfielder was allowed to play in the 2022 World Cup and then became champion not only with Argentina, led by Lionel Messi, in that tournament, but also in the UEFA Europa League with Sevilla.

Now, after having skipped the doping, if sanctioned the player would lose the world champion medal with the Argentina team and also the Europa League champion medal with Sevilla. According to the World Anti-Doping Code, neither his team nor the club would be at risk of losing the title for having had a player in their squad who tested positive. Article 11 of the regulations specifies that the team will be sanctioned with the loss of a title if and only if more than two players from a team have committed an anti-doping rule violation. In this sense, both Messi and the 45 million Argentines can breathe easy.

Why did Argentina register Papu Gómez if they knew he was positive?

According to Relevo, which has given the world premiere of the Argentine player's positive result, there was no sanction and that is why Argentina decided to have Papu Gómez during the ecumenical tournament. The same thing happened with Sevilla, who used Papu Gómez not only in the Europa League (matches against United and Juventus, for example), but also in La Liga. Why wasn't Papu Gómez sanctioned before the World Cup? Because he tested positive for a specific substance. If it had been positive for a non-specific substance, the offense would have been very serious and Argentina would not have been able to register it in Qatar.