Former Manchester City and Barcelona star Yaya Toure has reportedly been axed from this weekend’s Soccer Aid event after he offered to hire sex workers for his team-mates.
The 37-year-old boasted he could bring as many as 19 girls to the team’s hotel in Cheshire and, according to The Sun, also posted a pornographic video in a group whatsapp chat.
Toure’s antics sparked outrage from his team-mates, which include some female celebrities. Both ITV and organisers of the Soccer Aid event, which raises money for children’s charity UNICEF, were alerted and swift, decisive action was taken.
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Married father of two, Toure, has issued a private apology but he will play no part in Sunday’s fixture.
An insider said: ‘Everyone at Soccer Aid was disgusted by Yaya’s messages. There is a WhatsApp group for his team, the World XI, and everyone had been chatting in it.
‘Without being prompted, Yaya posted a video of a naked woman in a bath. She was acting in a lewd manner and it was highly inappropriate. He went on to say he could get 19 women like the one in the video to come to the hotel to the pleasure of those playing the match.
‘It was absolutely disgraceful and caused a huge amount of distress to some of the people who received the messages. Soccer Aid is a charity game and is raising money for children. So to have one of the players, especially one who is supposed to be a professional, making such lewd and gross suggestions is despicable.’
Toure, who won three Premier League titles during his trophy-laden eight-year spell at City, was due to represent the World XI alongside the likes of Patrice Evra and female players Julie Fleeting, Lianne Sanderson and Chelcee Grimes.
David James, the former Liverpool and England goalkeeper, is also due to feature on Sunday and he was left outraged by Toure’s antics.
‘The messages turned the stomachs of the women, along with the men. The atmosphere among both teams had been so good and spirits were high. These messages have really soured the mood.
‘Julie, Lianne and Chelcee and David James all made their feelings clear about how wrong they thought his messages were. They called for Toure to be taken off the team.’
An insider, meanwhile, said that Toure’s suggestion would never have come to fruition given the strict social distancing guidelines that remain in place due the Covid-19 pandemic.
They said: ‘There are strict social distancing rules in place at the hotel the teams are staying at so Yaya’s suggestion to his team-mates could never have come to pass. The hotel is blocked off solely for the teams and all those working on the game and there are rules in place. People cannot just come and go. Yaya acted incredibly foolishly and is now paying the price for his stupidity.’
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