ZURICH: Sunderland defender Emmanuel Eboue was handed a one-year ban from football by FIFA on Thursday for failing to pay his former agent. The world governing body said the ban will be lifted before it elapses if he pays the outstanding amount to the agent. Sunderland reacted by announcing that the club intends to terminate Eboue's contract. He signed a deal this month with the Premier League club until the end of the season. Eboue, a right back from the Ivory Coast, has had a contractual dispute with agent Sebastien Boisseau since 2013, when the player was ordered by a judge on FIFA's players' status committee to pay the amount owed to Boisseau. Eboue was fined 30,000 Swiss francs ($31,000) for failing to comply with the judge's decision. Eboue failed in an appeal to the Court of Arbitration and because he still hasn't settled his debt, Boisseau is entitled to request that a one-year ban be imposed on Eboue. FIFA said the English Football Association has been informed about the implementation of the ban. Sunderland said the dispute 'precedes his time at Sunderland and was not something that the club was made aware of by the player'. 'The club has therefore given notice of its intention to terminate the contract,' Sunderland said. 'The player has two weeks in which to appeal this decision.'