Soccer Team Official Hired Prostitutes to Entertain Refs

A top French soccer team official, saying “you have to look after your guests properly,” hired prostitutes to entertain referees after games.

Claude Bez, chairman of Bordeaux of the French First Division, said his club has paid for the women to be brought from Paris to spend the night with the game officials.

“It happens everywhere,” he told the L’Equipe sports daily Tuesday. “The European Cup is a big occasion. You have to look after your guests properly. But to think you can buy matches is ridiculous. However, I would not go so far as to say everyone is perfect.”

A spokesperson at UEFA, European soccer’s ruling body, based in Berne, Switzerland, declined to comment on the story.

Bez said in the article he paid Ljubo Barin, a Yugoslav agent, to look after referees and linesmen at half a dozen European Cup games in the late 1980s.