Sex, tape & football: Five scandals that shocked the world

The recent Karim Benzema blackmail probe and the Gerard Pique-Shakira scandal reveals why it's bad news to have a footballer and a camera in a bedroom.

WHEN: November 2015

FOUL: An erotic video of ‘Waka Waka' singer Shakira and her Barcelona player husband Gerard Pique has supposedly found its way into the hands of a former employee. The couple is reportedly being blackmailed for a “big sum of money" to not release the tape to the public.

PENALTY: The couple's rep has denied a blackmail plot. But the role of a sex tape in the whole affair is still shaky. Underneath her clothes and all that.

WHEN: October 2015

FOUL: Lyon player Mathieu Valbuena fi rst approached police in June, saying he was being blackmailed over a sexual escapade caught on phone camera. In October, Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema had a conversation with his fellow France team player Valbuena about the clip. He's now facing possible charges of “complicity in a blackmail attempt".

PENALTY: Benzema puts it down to an innocent, casual conversation, but if found guilty, he could face fi ve years in prison. Fans are distraught that this could spell the end of Benzema's career. Valbuena appeared before a judge on November 20 and presented his version of the events.

WHEN: May 2015

FOUL: It was supposed to be a goodwill tour in Bangkok, promoted by Leicester City's Thai billionaire owners. But three of the team's players, James Pearson (21), Tom Hopper (23) and Adam Smith (22) indulged in a vile orgy. They fi lmed depraved sexual acts with three Thai girls, heaping racial slurs and sickening verbal abuse on them, while winking at the camera.

PENALTY: The leaked tape made to the papers, leaving James's father and team boss Nigel Pearson red in the face. All four found themselves sacked by owners Vichai and Aiywatt Srivaddhanaprabha.

WHEN: 2000

FOUL: British football legend Rio Ferdinand's adventures at the Ayia Napa resort hit the headlines when a sex tape showed him, as well as mates Frank Lampard and Kieron Dyer, romping with a blonde girl. Ferdinand denied that it was an orgy in his autobiography and that the girl was fi lmed without her consent. “It was not one of those tiny cameras you can get these days. It was a bloody huge thing, you couldn't miss it," he wrote.

PENALTY: Apart from being splashed all over the tabloids, Channel Four showed a clip from the sexually explicit tape as part of their 2004 documentary Sex, Footballers and Videotape, claiming it was used to “remind the viewer that this is based on real life".

WHEN: 1998

FOUL: Dwight Yorke's and Mark Bosnich's names are linked together in sexcapade history. The former Man U and Aston Villa players decided to film an orgy with four women, with a hidden camera at home. What's more, the two dressed in women's clothing, with Bosnich even getting spanked in a skirt.

PENALTY: The press got wind of it — but mainly because of Yorke's sheer stupidity. What he should have done is destroy the tape. What he actually did is throw it in the bin where it was discovered by a reporter.