Ben Arthurs Cleared to Start New Season for Bangor
For three months, Bangor’s second-highest goalscorer of all time has been reduced to a spectator. No goals, no roar from the Clandeboye Park terraces, just a cloud of uncertainty hanging over one of the club’s modern-day stalwarts.
That wait is over.
Ben Arthurs has completed a three-month suspension after an anti-doping test detected a banned substance following Bangor’s Irish Premiership game against Glentoran on 10 March.
The 28-year-old was initially stood down by the County Down club in April, when Bangor confirmed only that they were “unable to provide further details” while an investigation unfolded. The silence was deliberate. The story, as it turns out, was serious.
On Thursday, UK Anti-Doping (UKAD) confirmed that analysis of Arthurs’ sample produced an adverse analytical finding for benzoylecgonine, a metabolite of cocaine.
Under UKAD regulations, cocaine use can attract a reduced three-month ban if an athlete proves it was taken out of competition and not for performance-enhancing reasons. That distinction became crucial for Arthurs.
He admitted ingesting cocaine “for recreational purposes within a social setting”, and an independent expert concluded the drug use most likely occurred before the day of the Glentoran match, which Bangor lost 4-0. That assessment helped steer the case away from a lengthy absence and towards a defined, shorter punishment.
The provisional suspension, imposed on 7 April, has now been fully served. Arthurs has already rejoined pre-season training under manager Lee Feeney and is eligible to play when Bangor open their 2026-27 Irish Premiership campaign against Cliftonville at Clandeboye Park on 15 August.
For Feeney, it restores a key weapon. For Arthurs, it offers something more fragile: a way back.
This coming season will be his ninth at the club, a remarkable stretch in the modern game and one that has seen him climb to second on Bangor’s all-time scoring charts. That history, and his connection with the supporters, will now sit alongside a disciplinary stain he cannot erase, only respond to.
Bangor have kept their counsel publicly throughout, and the wider game has taken notice. BBC NI approached both the Irish Football Association and the Northern Ireland Football League for comment on the case.
The ban is done. The headlines are written. What comes next will be decided on the pitch.
