MLS player hit with three-year ban for betting on league matches

For the second time in his career, Sporting Kansas City midfielder Felipe Hernández has been hit with a suspension for breaking MLS gambling rules.

The 26-year-old has been given a league ban that leaves him unable to register for an MLS team until January 1, 2006. In announcing the news, Sporting KC released a statement on the club website:

“Major League Soccer has terminated the contract of Sporting Kansas City midfielder Felipe Hernández following a probe into allegations that he violated the league’s gambling policies for the second time.”

Few details were included in the statement, other than to say that there was “no evidence that inside information was shared or that the integrity of any MLS match was compromised.” Hernández has been on administrative leave since June and has not been able to train or play for the team since a 2-1 victory over the Seattle Sounders on June 9, 2024.

Felipe Hernández has difficult history with gambling offences

The lengthy ban, keeping Hernández sidelined for nearly two-and-a-half years, likely factors in his previous offensces. In 2021 Hernández was suspended without pay for other violations of the league’s gambling rules, placing bets on two MLS matches along with “extensive and unlawful Sports gambling” on other soccer leagues.

That initial ban was for just three months, a more lenient sentence due to the player’s forthright response. It was Hernández who first came forward in the summer of 2021 to disclose his gambling. At the time MLS confirmed that he had claimed to be “concerned about his personal safety due to his gambling debts.”

Hernández was given counselling to help deal with issues around gambling and was returned to the Sporting KC squad after the completion of his suspension. He’s gone on to make 76 MLS appearances for the club but this latest infringement has ended his spell in Kansas City.

He is far from the first, and will not be the last, player to see their careers buffeting by the winds of a gambling addiction. Former Premier League players Wayne Rooney, Michael Owen, Paul Merson and Dietmar Hamann are among countless former players who have spoken of struggles with gambling.