Anger at legal aid for footballer

MPs today expressed their disgust at the case of a £40,000-a-week Premiership footballer being granted legal aid.

Taxpayers will foot the £306 legal bill when El-Hadji Diouf of Bolton Wanderers appears in court charged with spitting at an 11-year-old fan.

The 24-year-old Senegal international was charged with disorderly conduct over the incident last November.

Diouf qualifies for legal aid under the present rules because he is a French speaker and may need an interpreter and could lose his livelihood if found guilty by being banned from every ground in the country.

Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Mark Oaten said: "This is an utter outrage. He could afford a whole team of barristers on his wages and should pay the bill himself."

Conservative MEP Martin Callanan described the decision to grant legal aid as "absolutely crazy" and said: "It takes him less than the length of a match to earn enough to pay this bill."