French court rules that Bayern’s Franck Ribéry can be called ‘scum’ in book

A court in Paris has ruled that a journalist was
within his rights to describe Franck Ribéry as
“scum” in a book about French football published
in 2013.

In 2013, RMC Sport’s Daniel Riolo published his
book Racaille Football Club (Scum Football Club)
which lifted the lid on the seedy side of the French
game. Four years earlier, Ribéry and his team-mate
Karim Benzema had been accused of having sex
with an underage prostitute and were eventually
cleared.

But the investigations interfered with France’s
preparation for the World Cup in 2010 and
Raymond Domenech’s team were knocked out in
the group stages after Nicolas Anelka had been sent
home following a bust-up with the coach.

In his book, Riolo accused Ribéry of being one of
the main perpetrators of the discontent within the
squad and used several derogatory words to
describe him, including “scarface”, “scum” and
“gangster”. The Bayern forward, who is currently
out injured, sued the journalist and his publisher
Hugo & Cie for damages but a judge ruled this week
that the terms had been used “objectively” and that
the lawsuit was “reckless”.

Ribéry was subsequently ordered to pay a total of
€5,000 to Riolo and his publisher, with the judge
citing Roselyne Bachelot, the French sports
minister, who during the 2010 World Cup referred
to some of the French team as “gangsters”.

The 32-year-old’s lawyer Carlo Alberto Brusa said
he would appeal against the decision. “My client is
outraged that the 17th chamber of the court has
described this as an abuse of procedure as he was
simply exercising judicial means available to him to

request that his fundamental rights are respected.”