PSG defender Serge Aurier has been sentenced to two months in prison and fined €600 (£521) for an altercation outside a Paris nightclub but is expected to avoid time behind bars as his “convertible” sentence means he is more likely to do community service and pay a heftier fine.
Aurier has appealed against the ruling by a French court concerning the incident on 30 May – in which the 23-year-old allegedly elbowed a policeman in the throat after being asked to take a breathalyser test as he got into his car outside a nightclub on the Champs Elysées, according to reports.
Aurier was also ordered to pay a further €1,500 to cover court costs. “We’re appealing. Mr Aurier contests the findings. He’s not guilty and must be acquitted,” the player’s lawyer, Claire Boutard de la Combe, said.
The police officers’ witness statements described Aurier as “contemptuous” and “belligerent” but the right-back denied the charges and accused the police of unnecessary roughness. There is nothing in place to prevent him playing for PSG in the foreseeable future and he could travel with the team to Ludogorets for Wednesday’s Champions League tie.
This is the latest off-the-field controversy for Aurier: he was suspended by PSG for six weeks in February after a video emerged on social media showing the 23-year-old making derogatory comments about the then head coach, Laurent Blanc.
Last season, he was banned for three games by Uefa after a Champions League game against Chelsea following a video posted on Facebook in which he labelled the referee Bjorn Kuipers a “dirty son of a bitch” over the sending-off of his then team-mate Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
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