France national team suspends KARIM BENZEMA from the national players list over a sex-tape scandal!!!

Karim Benzema may not play for France again. He definitely won’t line up for Les Bleus anytime soon, as the Real Madrid superstar has been banned indefinitely from playing for Didier Deschamps’ squad until an investigation into his alleged involvement in a sex tape blackmail case is over.

The French Football Federation (FFF) confirmed Benzema’s ban on Thursday, with its president Noel Le Graet saying that Benzema would miss the 2016 European Championships in France next summer if the matter is not revolved by then.

“I have decided that he is not available for selection,” said Le Graet.

Benzema, 27, is alleged to be involved in the plot to extort money from French teammate Mathieu Valbuena and although he has denied any wrongdoing, he could face five years in prison if found guilty.

Despite being dropped from the last French national team squad due to the investigation, Benzema has tried to stay positive and has been performing superbly for Real Madrid, scoring 11 goals in 13 games and five times in his last two outings for Los Blancos.

His exclusion would be a huge blow for France as the former Lyon man would start and lead the line for the host nation at EURO 2016 next summer.

Let’s see what the next few months bring but this is bad news for Benzema.

Benzema, pictured wearing a white hooded top, arrives at the police station in Versailles for questioning today.

Striker Karim Benzema (pictured right) is being questioned by police over his role in an alleged blackmailing of fellow French international footballer Mathieu Valbuena (left).

Valbuena is alleged to be the victim of a blackmail plot over a sex tape. Here he is pictured alongside his partner Fanny Lafon - the identity or identities of who is alleged to appear in the sex tape is unclear

Benzema is linked with a plot to extort money from Valbuena. Other arrests have been made in the Bouches-du-Rhone and Oise departments of France.

Valbuena, the 31-year-old Lyon midfielder who has also been linked with a number of Premiership clubs, was asked for money in return for the tape not being published, it is alleged.

Investigators are trying determine the extent to which Benzema was aware of the intimate video featuring Valbuena, which found its way into the hands of blackmailers.

According to a source, Benzema mentioned the sextape to Valbuena during a meeting of the French team in early October, AFP reported.

It is thought one of Benzema's relatives was contacted by the suspected blackmailers with a view to involving the footballer in their scheme, the source said.

Police are seeking to determine whether he was teasing Valbuena when he mentioned the tape, or trying to make him pay the blackmailers.

Last month, Djibril Cisse, the former Liverpool, Sunderland, and Queens Park Rangers striker was arrested over the same plot, but later released without charge.

The case relates to a judicial investigation opened in July under the orders of a judge sitting in Versailles, west of Paris.
Benzema's lawyer Sylvain Cormier answers questions from the media outside the police station in Versailles.