Star defender Emmanuel Eboue has been banned from football for a year and sacked by his latest club, Sunderland, 22 days after he signed for them, because of a debt to his former agent.
Fifa imposed the punishment on the 32-year-old Ivory Coast player after his appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) was dismissed. However, the ban will be lifted if Eboue settles the undisclosed debt.
That will not make any difference to his Sunderland career, however, notes the Daily Mail, as the Black Cats revealed they had "given notice" of their intention to terminate the player's contract before he even made his debut.
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The club, which also sacked jailed child sex offender Adam Johnson earlier this year, said Eboue's legal troubles were "not something that the club was made aware of by the player" when he signed for them earlier this month. Eboue had been without a club since being released by Turkish side Galatasaray in the summer.
The ban is the result of "a protracted dispute involving non-payments to his former representative Sebastien Boisseau", explains The Guardian. Eboue was ordered to pay Boisseau an undisclosed sum in July 2013. A year later he was handed a £21,000 fine by Fifa for failing to comply with the order, threatened with a one year ban and given a further four months to pay.
Eboue then took his case to the CAS but his appeal failed and the ban has now been enforced.
The Guardian points out that Eboue could now find himself embroiled in another legal dispute if he decides to appeal against Sunderland's decision.
It is the latest chapter in a somewhat chaotic career for the player who spent six seasons at Arsenal and became something of a hero at the Emirates.
An inelegant player, he was regarded as something of an oddball in the Arsenal ranks, and in late 2008 he was reduced to tears by the booing of his own fans after a particularly poor performance against Wigan. This prompted a backlash from other supporters and he became a cult hero for some Gunners fans.
The footballer also suffered abuse from the supporters after he moved to Turkey in 2011, and there were particularly ugly scenes when he was pelted with missiles from the crowd during a game against Besiktas. Eboue spent his final season playing with the Galatasaray Under-21 side after being dropped from the first team.
