Just what French football didn’t need!

French football has had a bad time recently. Firstly there was the furore about the way they qualified for the World Cup via the very obviously deliberate Thierry Henry handball that beat Ireland in the play-offs. Then came a disastrous tournament both on and off the pitch as they didn’t win a game, failed to qualify out of the group and self imploded behind the scenes.

Suspended

A Government enquiry is being held into what went wrong and there are calls for all sorts of players to be suspended or banned for the part they played in the fiasco.

What French football really needs now is a sex scandal involving two of their star players!!

Forward

Step forward Franck Ribery and Karim Benzema! First of all, I need to make it absolutely clear that both players totally deny any legal wrong-doing. They admit to taking decisions that might seem remarkably strange to an outsider, but legally, they deny everything.

The two French internationals have been placed under judicial investigation over claims that they paid for sex with an under-age prostitute.

Criminal

This investigation into the events involving Ribery and Benzema is the first stage of criminal proceedings that can eventually lead to charges being made. The men were held as part of an enquiry into an alleged under-age prostitution ring. The allegation is that a Paris nightclub, Zaman Café on the Champs Elysees, allowed access to under-age girls working as prostitutes.

The players were questioned in Paris on Tuesday and then allowed to leave. The allegation centres on one woman, Zahia Dehar, who claims to have been paid for sex by both players.

Law

In French law, paid sex with a woman under eighteen years of age is regarded as sex with a minor and can carry a penalty of three years in prison and a fine of 45,000 Euros.

Ms Dehar, now aged eighteen claims that the alleged incidents took place in 2009.

Lawyer

Mr Ribery’s lawyer spoke after his release and accepted that a financial transaction had taken place in return for sex, but denied the offences as accused.

“It is an intentional offence, he would have to know her age, which wasn’t the case. She would have to look like a minor, which wasn’t the case; she would have to tell him she was a minor, which wasn’t the case, since all over the press she claimed that she was an adult and that she was more than twenty years old.”

Ms Dehar has said she never told her age either to Mr Ribery or Mr Benzema.

Mr Benzema has previously denied any wrongdoing through his lawyer.

Fortunate

Whilst it may well be the case that neither of the men were aware of the age of the girl in question, the fact that these incredibly well paid and fortunate individuals were paying young women for sex in a nightclub is hardly going to do much for the reputation of French footballers which is probably at an all time low anyway.

You would think they would know better, wouldn’t you?