BY Nadia Ntiamoah
Major League Soccer (MLS) has banned Ghanaian footballer Yaw Yeboah and American midfielder Derrick Jones after an investigation found the two players engaged in extensive gambling activities, including betting on matches involving their own teams.
The MLS announced on Monday that the decision followed a months-long probe triggered by suspicious betting alerts. MLS disclosed that it retained an external law firm to conduct a detailed investigation after irregular betting patterns were detected.
Both players had earlier been placed on administrative leave in October 2025 while the investigation was underway.
According to the league’s findings, Yeboah and Jones placed multiple bets on football matches throughout the 2024 and 2025 seasons.
The investigation also uncovered that some of the wagers involved games featuring their own teams, which is strictly prohibited under MLS regulations.
In one of the most concerning incidents, the players reportedly placed a bet on Jones receiving a yellow card during a match played on October 19, 2024. The league confirmed that Jones was indeed booked during the game, resulting in the pair winning the wager.
At the time, both players were teammates at Columbus Crew during the 2024 MLS season.
Jones remained with the club for the 2025 campaign, while Yeboah later transferred to Los Angeles FC, where he made 17 appearances during the season. Yeboah subsequently reached a mutual agreement to terminate his contract with the club in January 2026 and has since moved to continue his career in China.
Jones, 28, was born in Ghana but relocated to the United States as a teenager. He developed through the academy system of Philadelphia Union before building a professional career across several MLS clubs including Nashville SC, Houston Dynamo, Charlotte FC, and most recently Columbus Crew. Over the course of his career, Jones accumulated 131 league appearances.
Yeboah, also 28, began his football journey in Accra and is a product of the renowned Right to Dream Academy in Ghana. His early promise earned him a move to Manchester City in 2014, after which he spent time on loan at several clubs before eventually establishing himself in Europe with Wisła Kraków in Poland. He later joined Columbus Crew ahead of the 2022 MLS season.
During his time with Columbus, Yeboah developed into one of the league’s standout left wing-backs and played a key role in the club’s triumph in the MLS Cup in 2023.
