Major League Soccer has issued lifetime suspensions to Derrick Jones and Yaw Yeboah after both players were found guilty of violating the league’s gambling policy.
The sanctions followed an extensive investigation launched after suspicious betting alerts were flagged by the league’s monitoring partners. According to MLS, an independent law firm was engaged to conduct the probe, which led to the players being placed on administrative leave in October 2025 while the investigation continued.
In a statement, the league revealed that Jones and Yeboah engaged in extensive betting on soccer matches during the 2024 and 2025 seasons, including wagers involving their own teams.
MLS disclosed that in one instance both players bet on Jones to receive a yellow card during a match on October 19, 2024 ; a booking that eventually occurred during the game.
Despite the seriousness of the violations, the league said there was no evidence that the betting activity directly influenced the outcome of any match, although both players were believed to have shared conditional information with each other.
MLS Commissioner Don Garber emphasised the league’s firm stance on protecting the integrity of the competition.
“Major League Soccer remains steadfast in its commitment to match integrity,” Garber said.
“The league will continue to enforce its policies, enhance education efforts and advocate for the elimination of yellow card wagering in all states to protect the integrity of our competition for clubs, players and fans.”
Yaw Yeboah began his MLS career with Columbus Crew in 2022 and most recently featured for Los Angeles FC in 2025.
Meanwhile, Derrick Jones played for several MLS teams during his career including Philadelphia Union, Nashville SC, Houston Dynamo FC, Charlotte FC and the Columbus Crew.
Both players were teammates at Columbus Crew during the 2024 MLS season. They are currently not under contract with any MLS club following the lifetime bans.
