Soccer's Version of the Kobe Bryant Scandal 

Soccer's Version of the Kobe Bryant Scandal

It's an ugly situation in England, where the Premier League could be facing a sex abuse scandal repulsive and wide-ranging enough to make the NBA thankful the Kobe Bryant trial is all it has on its hands.

A 17-year-old London girl is claiming to have been raped by up to seven EPL players on September 27th. The Catholic schoolgirl told the police that she had consensual sex with one player in a room at a five-star hotel before being raped by five other men and assaulted by two others. All of the alleged rapists are highly recognizable EPL
players, according to the Star, the London tabloid that broke the story and is famous for giving daily exposure to aspiring nude models.

None of the names of the suspects has been released by the police and speculation over their identities (at least one is believed to be a Chealsea player) has been rampant
among gossip gluttons in England. The country's notoriously rowdy and cruel soccer fans were threatening to identify the suspects with chants during last weekend's games, which sent lawsuit-leary Sky Sports, who broadcasts
the EPL, scrambling to formulate contingency plans in such an event. Newspapers and Web sites have also refused to publish the names of the suspects for fear of
litigation.

But the media aren't as scared as the Premier League. The
chairman of a team that employs three of the suspects has threatened them with lifetime suspensions from the EPL if they refuse to provide DNA samples to the authorities.

The truth became even murkier over the weekend when, in a widely published report, a professional party organizer and friend of the players allegedly involved said the girl had sex with only four men that night--including him, plus
three players--and that all the acts were consensual. The man claims the girl falsified her story to the police because she was insulted to hear her four partners comparing notes over breakfast the following morning.

The girl has strongly denied the man's story.

We'll keep an eye on this one.