10 Biggest Premier League Controversies

10. Kyle Walker's Lockdown Sex Party

The Background:

It's 2020 and the country is on lockdown. People are told only to go out for essential reasons and to restrict gatherings to no more than two people. All football is suspended until further notice. It shouldn't really be possible to create a footballing scandal under the circumstances.

Manchester City and England right back Kyle Walker is one of several players to give a statement encouraging people to protect the NHS by following the government's public health guidance.

Walker, however, has a history of sex scandals. His rocky relationship with long-term girlfriend Annie Kilner ended in 2019 after years of tabloid gossip about his infidelities, including fathering a secret lovechild with model and reality star Lauryn Goodman. In a bizarre story from 2015, while at Tottenham, Walker was forced to deny having filmed a video shared by Arsenal fans of a woman (alleged to be Kilner) receiving oral sex from a dog.

The Controversy:

Literally a day before his public statement telling people to remain indoors and stay safe, Walker hosts a "sex party" with a friend and a pair of escorts. Although he claims to the girls his name is "Kai", the story gets out when one of the escorts recognises Walker as one of the country's best known footballers and goes to the press.

While scandals involving footballers and sex workers are too everyday to be major controversies (Wayne Rooney suffered no real long-term impact from his regular visits to a rubber-catsuit-wearing grandmother, for example), the flagrant - and hypocritical - violation of health advice during a national crisis just drives home how out of touch footballers are with the public.

The Aftermath:

Walker is disciplined and fined by City, but the biggest impact may be on his England career with enraged coach Gareth Southgate suggesting he may never play for his country again.