A former Liverpool star has been handed a suspended prison sentence over nearly £14,000 of failed child support payments after splitting from his ex in 2023
A former Liverpool star has been handed a suspended prison sentence over nearly £14,000 of failed child support payments.
El Hadji Diouf, who played for Liverpool between 2002 and 2005, was taken to court by his ex-wife Valerie Bishop last year. And he has been handed a one-year suspended sentence and ordered to pay ten million West African francs (£13,220) at Tuesday’s hearing.
Valerie, who split from Diouf in 2023, was given custody of the couple’s daughter Keyla. And the ex-Premier League striker was told to pay her £670 each month to cover child support, school fees and medical bills.
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Senegalese law has tough punishments for breaches of family law, including Article 351 – which specifies jail terms for refusal to pay maintenance.
Valerie’s legal team, Baboucar Cisse and Cheikh Sy, argued Diouf had sufficient wealth to meet his obligations.
While legal advisor Mame Adama Gueye told last November’s trial: “Diouf is fully solvent. He has the means to pay, but refuses to do so.”
Diouf spent three seasons on the books at Liverpool, but he spent the final season on loan at Bolton Wanderers. But his time on the banks of the River Mersey might have been overshadowed by his feud with Steven Gerrard.
Florent Sinama-Pongolle, a former Reds forward, once revealed an extraordinary face-off between the two during a pre-season friendly.
In a chat with journalist Walid Acherchour, he revealed: “Half-time of a pre-season game. Fight between Diouf and Gerrard. I was traumatised. Can you imagine the young ones seeing this and thinking that’s what professionals are like at that level?
“At half-time, in the dressing room. Stevie G is all like, ‘You have to pass, you have to pass’ and [Diouf] just loses it. He didn’t speak English. His English was rubbish. You know what he did? They hated each other so much.
“Steven Gerrard arrives, he insults Diouf. ‘Hey, you f*****’. And [Diouf] couldn’t answer, so he grabs [former Liverpool boss] Gerard Houllier and says: ‘Tell him, I’ll f*** his mum’.”
He’s also had a war of words with Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher, who once said that Diouf had “one of the worst strike rates in Liverpool history” after failing to score in over 30 matches.
He added: “The worst has to be El Hadji Diouf. Actually, I quite enjoyed playing against him as you could kick him then, can’t kick your own players.”