Valbuena sextape: Karim Benzema will not be excluded from the Blues in case of conviction

Published on : 11/10/2021 – 09:41

The judiciary will not influence the athlete. This is what the president of the French Football Federation Noël Le Graët promised on Wednesday 10 November in an interview with Le Parisien. In case of conviction in the “case of the sextape”, Karim Benzema, “will not be excluded” from the France team.

“The coach will always remain responsible for his selection, and Benzema will not be excluded in relation to a possible judicial sanction”, specifies the boss of the FFF in this interview. “Even if he receives a suspended prison sentence, he still has the possibility of appealing a conviction. So his summons, or not, in the coming months will not be linked to this judgment.”

It’s up to Didier Deschamps to decide

“I will never intervene to say that we do not take him. After that, it is up to Didier (Deschamps, the coach of the France team) to consider whether, sportingly, he is fit to play with the Blues” , added Noël Le Graët.

Karim Benzema (33 years old, 92 caps), recalled to the France team last May after five years of absence in the blue jersey, will know on November 24 the decision of the Versailles court in the so-called “sextape” case.

In October, the prosecution requested a ten-month suspended prison sentence and a 75,000-euro fine against the Real Madrid striker, also absent from the trial, believing him to be an accomplice in an attempt to blackmail Mathieu Valbuena, ex-teammate in the France team threatened by the dissemination of an intimate video.

With AFP