OSLO (Reuters) - Morgan Andersen, former director of Norwegian club Lyn, was handed a one-year suspended jail sentence by an Oslo court on Wednesday for forging contracts relating to Nigerian midfielder John Obi Mikel in 2005.

The court said the falsified documents linking Lyn and Mikel, who went on to become embroiled in a transfer row between Premier League clubs Manchester United and Chelsea, effectively enabled Lyn to gain a slice of the player's transfer fee.

"The court is in no doubt the contracts were amended and Andersen knew this," judge Torjus Gard said in his judgement.

Andersen told the court he would lodge an appeal.

Lyn director Erik Langerud called the verdict "unfortunate" but told local media he did not think it would hurt the club financially.

Langerud told the online version of tabloid VG that he did not think the verdict would force Lyn to pay back millions of pounds in transfer fees.

"We must just wait for this judicial process, which is continuing, and see what happens in an eventual appeal and cannot take a stance on one thing or another before it is decided -- and before any eventual case against us," he told VG.

Mikel was under 18 when he joined Lyn and was therefore given an amateur contract.

After the midfielder turned 18, the Norwegian soccer authorities were presented with a professional contract Mikel has denied signing. The documents with Mikel's signature on were cut out from the amateur contract, the judge said.

CHELSEA MOVE

Mikel joined Chelsea in June 2006 after suddenly announcing he would not go to Manchester United from Lyn as expected. Mikel said he had been put under pressure to sign for United.

Chelsea said they had reached a financial settlement with United and Lyn under which they would pay the Old Trafford club 12 million pounds ($23.97 million) and Lyn four million pounds.

Asked if Lyn had the means to pay back the fees, club boss Langerud told VG: "That is an entirely hypothetical question. There is a long way to go before that happens. Our legal advisers do not see that as an outcome of this.

"It is unfortunate that the name is dragged in to this. It hurts our reputation."

Andersen is now on leave from his job as director of another Norwegian top flight club, Fredrikstad, and his lawyer Cato Schioetz told Norwegian broadcaster NRK he would probably not be able to return to that position after the court ruling.

(Reporting by Richard Solem, editing by Ken Ferris and Trevor Huggins)