Footballer Sancho found not guilty

Trinidad and Tobago defender Brent Sancho was a relieved man after learning yesterday that he and teammate Stephen McNally had been found not guilty by a Scottish court of assault charges. Sancho and McNally had been in the Dundee Sheriff Court over the past few days for the hearing on their taxi bust up in Dundee earlier this year. His former Dundee teammate, now Rangers striker Nacho Novo had said in court on Tuesday how he leapt to defend a former team-mate. Both Sancho and McNally denied assaulting Robert McGregor in Dundee last year. Sancho claimed that McGregor threw him out of a taxi and hurled racial slurs at him before Novo and McNally got involved. The matter drew great media attention in Scotland and Sancho admitted that he was just relieved it had ended.

“To be honest it feels like the world is off my shoulders now,” Sancho said yesterday. “We have the option of suing the other guy but I won’t be taking it any further because right now I just want to focus on playing ball. The past couple of weeks have been a major strain and it’s nice now to settle back into normal life again. Hopefully, I nor anyone of my other teammates will ever have to endure something like this again,” Sancho added. Dundee FC also made a stement on the court’s decision. “The club still has concerns, however, about the way this case was portrayed in sections of media pre-trial. Over the past few months, the club and players have had to endure negative publicity associated with this incident. That has now been proven to be unwarranted.” “Footballers are in a very privileged position and are also constantly in the public eye.

That can mean that others sometimes rush to judgment before all the facts are known,” added Dundee Manager Jim Duffy. “Everyone at Dens is very pleased for Brent and Stephen and relieved that this matter is over and that we can all concentrate on the vital derby match this Saturday.” Sancho is, however, still experiencing neck pains following his concussion last week but is still likely to play a part against Dundee United on the weekend. “I’m pretty sure I’ll still be out there because I also want to thank the club and the fans for their support throughout this ordeal.” Meantime, TT striker Jason Scotland signed a new two and a half year contract yesterday with Dundee United subject to a new work permit. “We don’t expect that to be a problem, because he has proved he is a good asset to the club. He has not started the season as we hoped, but he’s shown in training he is close to getting back to where he was,” said United boss Ian McCall.