Introducing: A French Football Scandal

Sport's Strangest Crimes

Maisie Adam tells the shocking story of jealousy, deceit and a brutal attack on a Paris Saint-Germain player that turned team-mates into the bitterest enemies.

Its a story that has gripped the French public since the arrest of PSG star Aminata Diallo in November 2021, suspected of ordering an attack on her team-mate and previously good friend, Kheira Hamraoui.

The accusation was Diallo wanted Hamraoui's place in the PSG starting line-up and so instructed a group of masked men to intercept the two players on a car journey home together and then assault Hamraoui, targetting her legs. And this is exactly how events played out.

Police investigations following the attack initially led them to Diallo's door although with too little evidence to charge her Diallo was released, presumed innocent. Instead the spotlight turned on the victim Hamraoui. Intimate details of her private life became public knowledge, including an affair with a married man who just happened to be a French football superstar.

Diallo returned to play alongside Hamraoui back at PSG – and at this point life became hell for Hamraoui. Team-mates, opponents and even her own fans, acting in sympathy with Diallo, targeted her with vicious verbal abuse.

It seemed everyone was against Hamraoui, including a controversial football agent, who would be accused of putting pressure on PSG to sell Hamraoui, and whose presence at training the player found intimidating.

The PSG coach found himself caught up in the fall-out too, taking phone calls urging him to drop Hamraoui, and also receiving thinly-veiled threats if he didn't. He would end up in a fight to clear his name from terrible accusations. Then in September 2022, almost out of the blue, Daillo was re-arrested and this time the public prosecutor charged her. Statements from the men who carried out the attack identifying her as the mastermind along with months of secret phone surveillance convinced the police she was guilty. But is she?

With the case still to come to trial this podcast presents the evidence and hears the opinions from those closest to the case, and those who think she's innocent, and those who think she's guilty. So you can decide for yourself....

Narrator Maisie Adam Interviews: Charlotte Harpur and Tom Williams Voices for interviewees performed by: Janine George, Chyna Johnson, Tom Roberts and Colin Ryan. Voice Artist audio recording: Thomas Hale at the Voiceover Gallery Translation for the Aminatta Diallo interview: Laura Bennett Script Consultant: Dave Bowler Researchers: Rob Carroll, John Harrison and Janet Hughes Assistant Producer: Jennifer Hanratty-Ball Editor: Kevin Hinde Assistant Commissioner for the BBC: Lizzi Doyle Commissioning Executive: Stevie Middleton Executive Producer: Craig South Writer and Producer: Jonathan Sides

A PDI Media production for BBC Sounds and BBC Radio 5 Live