Banned: Guardiola faces club exile

The ban is less severe than it might have been after the Italian Olympic Committee (Coni) recommended an eight-month ban for the Dutch international.

Spain and Brescia midfielder Pep Guardiola, meanwhile, was banned for four months and fined �30,000 for failing a similar drugs test after a game against Lazio in November.

Neither player has the right to appeal, but both deny taking any banned substance.

Guardiola has said that he would quit football if he failed to clear his name, while Stam reportedly re-stated his innocence after the hearing.

There is considerable controversy surrounding nandrolone with claims that positive tests can be produced without an athlete knowingly taking the drug.

Reduced ban

Last season in Italy, nine players tested positive for the steroid, including Edgar Davids and Lazio's Portuguese international defender Fernando Couto.

In July, Uefa's court of appeal reduced a one-year nandrolone ban on Barcelona star Frank de Boer, who tested positive for the drug in March, to just under three months.

Uefa admitted it was likely that de Boer's positive test had been caused by contaminated food supplements.