Magazine fined for Lyon escort girls claim

Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas on Tuesday succeeded in a court case against a magazine that had accused the Ligue 1 club of hiring escort girls for their players. The magazine, Mag2Lyon, and sociologist Patrick Vassort were each ordered to pay a 3,000 euros ($4,000) fine after claiming that the practice was rife at Lyon in an article published in May 2010.
"In professional football, it's very common for orgies to be organised in hotels and for escort girls and other sexual favours to be offered," Vassort wrote in an article entitled 'They play with girls like a football'. "Besides, at Lyon, like elsewhere, the directors and the players' agents know about it. They tolerate it, close their eyes to it. Sometimes, they pay for it themselves." The magazine was found guilty of defamation at a court in Lyon.