Major League Soccer have announced that it has permanently banned midfielders Derrick Jones and Yaw Yeboah for betting on soccer matches. The league said the players placed “extensive” bets, including wagers on games involving their own teams.
According to an MLS investigation, one case involved a match on October 19, 2024. Both players bet that Jones would receive a yellow card during the game. Jones did receive a card in that match.
The league said it received “suspicious betting alerts” and hired a law firm to look into the matter. The players were put on administrative leave in late October 2025 while the investigation took place. The probe found that both players had bet on soccer many times during the 2024 and 2025 seasons.
Yeboah and Jones played together for one season with the Columbus Crew in 2024. Jones stayed with the Crew for the 2025 season. Yeboah moved to Los Angeles FC and played 17 games for them in 2025. He agreed to end his contract with LAFC in January and now plays for a club in China.
Jones, 28, was born in Ghana and moved to the United States as a teenager. He came up through the youth system at the Philadelphia Union. Over his career, he also played for Nashville SC, Houston Dynamo, and Charlotte FC before his time with Columbus. Jones has made 131 appearances in MLS.
Yeboah, also 28, is from Accra, Ghana. He joined Manchester City in 2014 and was loaned to several clubs. He later signed with Wisła Kraków in Poland before joining the Crew before the 2022 season.
In Columbus, Yeboah became known as one of the league’s top left wingbacks. He helped the Crew win the MLS Cup in 2023.
The league said the lifetime bans are effective immediately.