Manchester City midfielder Yaya Toure has pleaded guilty to drink-driving, but says he had not “intentionally consumed alcohol”.<\/p>\n
The Ivory Coast player, 33, accepts he was “above the permitted limit”, and did not challenge the charge.<\/p>\n
He was fined \u00a354,000 – a means-tested fine – and banned from driving for 18 months by Barkingside magistrates.<\/p>\n
“It is well known that I am a Muslim and do not drink, said Toure. “I have always refused alcohol.”<\/p>\n
Toure was driving in Dagenham in east London at the time of the offence last month.<\/p>\n
He pleaded guilty to the charge on Monday, but did not say in his Facebook statement how the alcohol got into his system.<\/p>\n
In his statement Toure added: “Drink-driving is a serious crime and even though I was not intentionally consuming alcohol I accept the ban and fine and I would like to apologise for this situation.”<\/p>\n
The Ivory Coast international was recalled to the Manchester City squad earlier this month after apologising for “misunderstandings” relating to comments made by his agent Dimitri Seluk.
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Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Manchester City midfielder Yaya Toure has pleaded guilty to drink-driving, but says he had not “intentionally consumed alcohol”. The Ivory Coast player, 33, accepts he was “above the permitted limit”, and did not challenge the charge. He was fined \u00a354,000 – a means-tested fine – and banned from driving for 18 months by Barkingside magistrates. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":276422,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11],"tags":[564,911],"yoast_head":"\n