Stoke City Sack Burundi Star Berahino Over Drink Driving
Sky Bet Championship club Stoke City have reportedly told Burundi forward Saido Berahino they will be terminating his contract following his drink driving conviction.
Berahino, 25, was banned from driving for 30 months and fined £75,000 for being three times over the legal alcohol limit when he was stopped by police in London in February.
The striker was convicted earlier this month despite claiming to have driven in order to escape a gang of armed robbers.
But according to the Daily Mail, Stoke have taken action by cancelling Berahino’s contract, which is due to run until the summer of 2022.
The report claims the Burundi international is challenging the Championship club’s decision. Stoke have not commented on the matter so far.
Bernahino signed for the Potters from West Brom in January 2017 but has struggled to make an impact for his club.
It took him a year to score his first goal and he had already been disciplined for poor time-keeping by manager at the time Paul Lambert.
However, Berahino improved under Gary Rowett but it emerged that his old issues with discipline and time-keeping had been merely tolerated by the new regime.
He has previous convictions for drink-driving in 2015 and being drunk in charge of a vehicle in 2012.
Berahino received an eight-week ban in February 2017 after testing positive for a Class A drug, believed to be MDMA.
The player claims a spiked drink was the reason he failed the drug test.
Next month, Berahino will be expected to play a part for Burundi in the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt.
The Swallows kick off their campaign in the competition against Group B rivals Nigeria on June 22 before playing Madagascar five days later and Guinea on June 30.
