Karim Benzema

French footballer Karim Benzema, who plays for Real Madrid and the France national team, has been handed a one-year suspended jail term and a fine of 75,000 euros after he was found guilty by a Versailles court of conspiring with others to blackmail a team-mate over a sexually explicit video found on his mobile phone.

At a court in Versailles, French prosecutors on Thursday called for a suspended prison sentence to be handed to footballer Karim Benzema, the star striker of Real Madrid and the France national team, for his alleged part in an attempt to blackmail team-mate Mathieu Valbuena over a sexually explicit video recording, for which four others are also standing trial.  

The French forward, implicated in a sex tape scam, tells Spanish magazine he was left out of squad for Euro 2016 because of his North African origins.

Former football star suggested Didier Deschamps may have left Hatem Ben Arfa and Karim Benzema out of Euro 2016 squad on racial grounds.

French Football Federation's ban on the 27-year-old football star will be lifted if he is cleared of suspected complicity in blackmail of teamate.

Manuel Valls said the football star, implicated in an alleged sextape blackmail sting against team-mate Mathieu Valbuena, lacked 'exemplarity'.

The Real Madrid and striker is suspected of helping to blackmail France team mate Mathieu Valbuena over a compromising sex video.

French football stars cleared of having sex with underage prostitute after court accepts there was no proof they knew Zahia Dehar's real age.

Franck Ribéry, 30, and Karim Benzema, 26, face three-year prison term if found guilty of knowingly paying for sex with a minor.

Paris court postpones trial of Franck Ribery and Karim Benzema for soliciting minor to consider whether the law was too vague to be applicable.

French football stars, Franck Ribery and Karim Benzema, are to stand trial over allegations that they solicited an under-age prostitute.