Former French international Djibril Cissé has denied trying to blackmail ex-teammate Mathieu Valbuena using sexy time tape footage, a day after he was arrested and questioned over his alleged involvement in the extortion plot.
Cissé, 34, was released without charge late in the afternoon and immediately claimed his innocence on French TV, calling up personal friend and host of French chat show “Touche pas à mon poste” (Don’t Touch My TV), Cyril Hanouna, to give his side of the story.
“I have nothing to do with it, Mathieu is a friend of mine,” he told Hanouna over the phone during the show’s live broadcast. “And I was not hiding under the bed while he got it in,” assured the former Marseille striker.
“Frankly, it’s not funny. It’s something that could have been very bad for me and for him,” he said, insisting the police had only taken him in for questioning “to hear my side of the story”.
The flamboyant Cissé himself made a complaint to police in 2008 after claiming he was the target of a blackmail attempt involving a sex tape while he was playing for Marseille. Which begs the questions what is going on in the Les Olympiens locker room.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, REUTERS)