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The talented Ghanaian midfielder Winful Cobbinah has been sentenced to four months in prison in Albania after being convicted of “falsifying official documents”, Ghanasoccernet.com can exclusively reveal.
The former Hearts of Oak playmaker was hit with the shocking sentence on the Tirana court on Tuesday after he was convicted of falsifying his residence permit.
However, there is great relief for the FK Tirana superstar as the judge commuted the sentence to 100 hours of community service because the midfielder was declared a person of exemplary conduct.
Cobbinah’s good conduct since moving to Albania means that the judge asked him to serve the community for 100 hours because “he is not a threat to society,” the judge said in issuing his ruling.
This means the humble Ghanaian star is released from any prison confinement and can continue to play for his top-notch team FK Tirana, the club he recently helped win the title.
Cobbinah got into unnecessary trouble when he was caught by police authorities in Rinas with a forged residence permit, causing his problems.
It is an unnecessary problem, since you are legally entitled to a residence permit in Albania because you are legally and paid employed in one of the largest clubs in the country.
His problems came to light last month when the country’s president, Meta, granted him an Albanian passport within a record eight hours to qualify him as an Albanian player.
This would have helped FK Tirana buy more foreign players to boost its squad to play in European competitions, but the opposition party led by the Prime Minister publicly clashed with the country’s president over the granting of the passport.
Forged documents hung around Cobbinah’s neck before he was handed his Albanian passport to help him play for his club in the Europa League.
Albanian President Ilir Meta was accused of granting Cobbinah citizenship without verifying that there are criminal proceedings against the footballer, which has led to a national debate.
President Meta’s problem escalated to the point that even the opposition party headed by Prime Minister Edi Rama accused the country’s leader of being an accessory to falsifying documents to grant Cobbinah Albanian citizenship.
Winful Cobbinah’s Albanian citizenship was made available in just eight hours.
Given that the Ghanaian has not spent five years in Albania, the decision of the country’s president, who is also a fervent supporter of KF Tirana, to hand over citizenship to the Ghanaian speaks volumes about how he is rated in that country.
Many also see this move by the Albanian government as an attempt to convince Cobbinah to change his nationality to play for them, despite the fact that he has been invited to the Ghana senior team a couple of times.
But with the relaxation of FIFA’s change of nationality regulations, it could be an Albanian decision to get him to play for them even though Cobbinah has expressed no interest in playing for him.
Others also say Albanian club Tirana wants him to play in UEFA club competitions as a native so they can bring in more foreigners.
Cobbinah follows other African soccer players, including well-known Abraham Alechenu, Charles Ofoye and James Adeniyi, who have received Albanian passports in the past.
The former Hearts of Oak star played an influential role for the team, as assured the Katergoria Superiore last season, ending an 11-year drought in the top flight and its latest success dates back to the 2008/2009 season.
Since arriving from Ghanaian giants Hearts of Oak two years ago, Cobbinah has been one of the mainstays of the team, scoring 10 goals in a total of 58 games so far and providing several assists.
The poster boy has been rewarded by the country’s president after granting him citizenship in just two years.
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