Black Stars defender Jonathan Mensah has been handed a four month ban from football by world sport’s highest body, the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS).
The 24 year old moved from Italian side Udinese to Evian Thonon Gaillard in the French league as a free agent in 2011. Somehow, after four whole years, his old side are now reporting the deal as fraudulent.
From the BBC:
“Ghana defender Jonathan Mensah has been handed a worldwide ban from football for four months by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) over his transfer from Udinese to Evian four years ago.
Sources close to Mensah have told the BBC the court ruled in favour of Italian club Udinese, stating Mensah’s transfer to the French side as a free agent was illegal because the Ghanaian was still under contract at the time.
Mensah’s ban takes effect from 29 April and will expire on 29 August 2015.
It means Mensah will miss the start of next season but crucially for Ghana, he will also be absent from the 2017 Nations Cup qualifier against Mauritius, scheduled for Accra on 14 June”
This is unfortunate news, as Mensah is one of the key Stars players, and the ban covers all football games during the period.
His team would probably mount some sort of appeal, so we patiently wait the results of that process.