On a crooked path: why football players regularly become heroes of the crime chronicle

“We are not aware of all the details of the conflict”

The hit of famous players in the reports of the criminal chronicle has long been a serious problem in football.

Athletes with big names and big money regularly find themselves in court for certain offenses, despite all their authority and status.

And any offense involving stars in the era of the Internet and social networks instantly becomes public.

Luckily, we rarely get into serious legal trouble.

One of the rare exceptions is Spartak midfielder Quincy Promes, who was accused in his homeland of attacking his cousin and stabbing him in the knee.

The incident was initially qualified as an attempted murder.

The Dutchman was threatened with a real prison term, but the Amsterdam court issued a relatively lenient sentence, obliging him to pay compensation, the amount of which has not yet been established.

The midfielder will also cover legal costs.

At the same time, it is reported that the prosecutor's office continues to work on the criminal case.

According to the ex-captain of the Russian national team Alexander Mostovoy, the Spartak player should not be blamed for what happened, because the fans do not know all the details.

“Let Promes stab his cousin, but we do not understand what preceded this.

Perhaps he himself provoked the Spartak midfielder.

We simply do not know all the moments of the family conflict.

But catchy headlines have done their job, and Quincy is already perceived as a criminal, ”complained Mostovoy.

In his opinion, football players break the law no more often than ordinary people, but are under close scrutiny.

This creates the illusion that they are constantly committing illegal acts.

“Interest in football players is thousands of times greater than in ordinary people.

Even other sports are not close.

Therefore, any act causes serious discussion.

And so not only here, but throughout Europe, ”added the ex-captain of the national team.

"Girls want to take advantage of the players"

Players are often accused of committing rape.

Such scandals occur with enviable regularity.

The defender of the German "Stuttgart" Atakan Karazor was the last to score.

According to Spanish press reports, an 18-year-old girl filed a police report and accused two men of inducing her to have sexual contact while relaxing in a private villa in Ibiza.

Both suspects were later arrested.

The press immediately became aware that one of them was a professional footballer playing in the Bundesliga.

The club later confirmed that it was Karazor who had been arrested.

He himself denies all accusations.

Atakan just added to the extensive list of players who got into major sex scandals.

Perhaps the most talked about was the case of Manchester City defender Benjamin Mendy, who was sentenced by the Chester Crown Court on eight counts of rape and a total of ten sex offences.

All of their world champion made in the period from October 2018 to August 2021.

And the allegations came from four people over the age of 16.

For some time he was in custody, but at the beginning of 2022 he was released on bail.

At about the same time, Ruben Semeda, who played for the Greek Olympiacos, was detained on charges of raping a 17-year-old girl.

Allegedly, the victim met a man in a bar, and then went to his house, where she was subjected to violence by a group of people.

As a result, the Portuguese was released on bail of €10,000. The forensic medical examination did not reveal signs of rape in the victim.

Even the five-time winner of the Golden Ball, Cristiano Ronaldo, managed to get into a similar scandal.

In 2018, model Catherine Mayorga filed a lawsuit against the star, accusing him of violence in a hotel in the summer of 2009.

The woman explained that even then she wrote a statement to the police, but in the end she came to an out-of-court agreement with the footballer.

Nine years later, she demanded that £56 million be paid to her as compensation for moral and physical damage.

In early June, this high-profile case came to an end.

The model's claim was rejected.

According to media reports, the court in Las Vegas focused on the bad faith behavior of Leslie Mark Stovall, Mayorga's lawyer, who used stolen confidential documents.

However, from time to time scandals end with real prison terms.

So, the former midfielder of Manchester City and the England national team, Adam Johnson, was jailed for six years for seducing a 15-year-old girl.

In 2019, he was released early.

The midfielder wanted to resume his career, but because of his background he did not receive offers and hung up his boots.

According to Mostovoy, football players are often deliberately accused of rape in order to blackmail them.

“The girls want to take advantage of the players.

Agree, it is difficult to compare a guy with a salary of 10 thousand rubles and a person with a million salary.

There is nothing to take from the first.

You don't go to the radio or the newspaper to tell him that you didn't want to sleep with him.

In this regard, athletes are no different from the same actors or musicians, since serious money is also spinning in these areas, ”the former midfielder of the Russian national team believes.

"They are constantly in the spotlight"

Much more often, the courts have to consider the issue of alimony to the former families of the players.

Athletes regularly divorce, but despite serious means, they are not always able to agree amicably with their soul mates.

And some even refuse to recognize kinship with their own children.

So, in October last year, a resident of Kazan stated that the Zenit striker Serdar Azmun, who moved to the German Bayer in the winter, is the father of her daughter Aliya.

Allegedly, young people met for two years both in Kazan and in St. Petersburg.

The Iranian agent called all this gossip, but the Primorsky District Court of the Northern Capital established Azmun's paternity and ordered the striker to pay alimony.

According to the law, they will amount to 25% of earnings in Germany.

The striker joined a number of well-known Russian football players, such as Dmitry Tarasov, Andrey Arshavin, Pavel Mamaev and Alexander Kerzhakov.

But the divorce of the Arsenal defender Ivan Novoseltsev and the former basketball player of the national team Ekaterina Keyru, who were considered the most beautiful sports couple in the country, was the loudest.

Moreover, the player proposed to the girl right at the stadium in Rostov-on-Don, when he played for the local team.

It all ended in an ugly break.

The woman accused the ex-husband and members of his family of wanting to “take away everything” from her and her child.

She later lamented that Novoseltsev did not recognize the paternity of their daughter.

It all ended with an appeal to Vladimir Putin about non-payment of alimony.

Summing up, Mostovoy complained that some athletes, having received good contracts, begin to feel complete impunity, and this affects, among other things, relations with the law.

The most striking example of such a mistake was the prison term of Mamaev and Alexander Kokorin.

“Believe me, in my life I have seen many guys who just did not get up.

But when I went out on the field myself, there was no Internet, no social networks, no phones.

And in Moscow, figuratively speaking, there were two restaurants and three discos.

That's all.

Now the situation has changed dramatically,” Mostovoy explained.

He urged football players to be as attentive as possible and remember that the status of a star, along with big money and popularity, also imposes additional responsibility.

“The guys should never forget for a second: they are constantly in the spotlight.

Yes, and the temptations have become much more.

And, of course, no one canceled the factor of upbringing and culture.

For example, it's hard to piss me off.

And others can yell obscenities, behave defiantly, ”summed up Mostovoy.