Switzerland's highest court said yesterday it has upheld a record damages payment of €17.2-million imposed on striker Adrian Mutu by his former club Chelsea after a positive cocaine test.

"The Swiss Federal Tribunal has rejected the appeal filed by Adrian Mutu against a sentence by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

"The CAS had sentenced the professional Romanian footballer to paying a sum of more than €17 million to his previous employer, Chelsea Football Club Limited," it added.

Mutu, now at Italian club Fiorentina, was sacked by Chelsea in October 2004 and banned for seven months after failing a drugs test for cocaine.

FIFA had ordered him to pay Chelsea the compensation - then the biggest ever handed down to a footballer and calculated according to the value of the remaining period on his Stamford Bridge contract.

Mutu's appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport was rejected in July 2009, and he then filed an appeal to Switzerland's Federal Tribunal.

But the Swiss court overturned the 31-year-old footballer's claim that the CAS judges were not impartial and that the move by Chelsea to terminate his contract was against the labour laws.

"This was not the case, therefore the appeal of the Romanian footballer was unfounded," it said.

In another doping case this year, Mutu - capped over 60 times and who has had distinguished spells at Verona, Parma and Juventus - has been banned by the Italian Olympic Committee's (CONI) anti-doping tribunal for failing two drug tests.