THE SUMMER of shame engulfing French football reached a new low yesterday as international Franck Ribery was charged with soliciting an underage prostitute for his 26th birthday.

Ribery, now 27, faces up to three years in prison and a fine of €45,000 if convicted.

Real Madrid’s Karim Benzema, who was yesterday detained by police with Ribery, was last night waiting to hear if he too was facing charges for allegedly paying for sex with a girl he knew to be below the legal age of consent.

French police yesterday questioned the two players for several hours at the Paris vice squad headquarters.

Ribery’s lawyer insisted he did not know the girl at the centre of the probe was under 18 at the time.

The prosecutor’s spokesman said Ribery was released from custody pending further investigation.

Benzema was still being questioned by magistrate Andre Dando last night.

Benzema, who was excused from training by his club yesterday for personal reasons, told French radio in April he had done nothing wrong.

Police had postponed the hearing until after the World Cup, in which Ribery was part of a disastrous French campaign which led to a public outcry after players protested against the coach and the team crashed out without winning a game.

“One has to ask whether he is not being made to pay for France’s World Cup failure,” said Ribery’s lawyer, Sophie Bottai.

French media have suggested the players were clients of a nightclub in Paris’s upscale Champs-Elysees district that allegedly featured escorts, including the under-18 girl, Zahia Dehar, at the centre of the affair.

The scandal, which gripped France ahead of the World Cup, took a new twist in late April when the young woman at the centre of the case gave a lengthy interview to Paris Match magazine, implicating players and denying being a prostitute.

She said Ribery, married with two children, had invited her to Munich in April 2009 to celebrate his 26th birthday in a luxury hotel, adding he had paid her for three encounters last year.

According to French law, paid sex with someone under 18 is deemed sex with a minor.

Zahia, who turned 18 in February, confirmed widespread reports in the French press that she was underage when she met Ribery, but added that she had not informed him about her age.

Ribery’s lawyer Bottai told reporters that for her client to be found guilty, the girl “would have had to look like a minor and that was not the case and ... had informed him that she was under age, which was not the case.”

Zahia had “said in all the press that she told him (Ribery) and others that she was an adult,” Bottai added.

Police also questioned Ribery’s brother-in-law and Benzema’s agent in custody over the incident. Police custody can last 48 hours before a judge must make a decision.

Laurent Blanc was officially appointed France coach at the start of the month with the mission to restore the team’s pride after their World Cup performance.

Blanc will pick his first team for a friendly in Norway on August 11th with the 22-year old Benzema expected to be part of the new generation.