Meet the man who was banned from Soccer Aid

Picture this: you’re about to play in Soccer Aid, the biggest charity football match in the world.

After weeks of training and press coverage you receive a message in the WhatsApp group chat three days before the game. It’s filled with all your favourite celebrities so you’re on high alert…

… you click on the app. You open the message. And it’s p**n. Specifically, a nude woman in a bath. Followed by an offer of a prostitute for the night.

Am I hallucinating? You check the group chat name and rush to message the other members to find out what’s going on.

Your intuitions are confirmed. Yaya Toure has just sent p**n into the Soccer Aid group chat and offered to buy everyone hookers.

Who saw the messages?

We’re not sure whether the list of people in the group chat makes his offence funnier or more serious… probably both.

But included in the 20-plus celebs who received his escort offer were: 

• Julie Fleeting MBE (women’s footballer and Scottish Sports Hall of Famer).

• Lianne Sanderson (women’s footballer, Arsenal quadruple winner and LGBT activist).

• Chelcee Grimes (singer, songwriter and LGBT activist).

What happened next?

Collectively outraged, the players above (alongside David James) complained to ITV and UNICEF. Yaya was then kicked from the chat and banned from the Soccer Aid match.

He apologised shortly after he got the boot… labelling the error as an “inappropriate joke”.

Why did he do it?

No idea… but this is not the first time Yaya’s behaviour has been questionable…

He was caught slapping Eden Hazard on the head before a big game, picked the wildest all-time XI we’ve ever seen and introduced his nephew as his wife before an interview.

Regardless of why he did it, we hope it taught him a lesson, an important one for anyone trying to be funny in a group chat:

Know your audience.