The Offside Daily: Real Madrid star charged by Police, Spurs duo in England squad

Only the news you need – bringing you five mainstream and five off-the-wall news stories each day!

1. Karim Benzema has been charged in relation to an alleged sex tape blackmail plot against France team-mate Mathieu Valbuena. The Real Madrid star was arrested yesterday and brought before a judge this morning.

2. In-form Tottenham Hotpsur midfield duo Erik Dier and Delle Alli are in England’s 23-man squad for the friendlies against Spain and France.

3. Belgium moved to the top of the FIFA World Rankings for the first time on Thursday after overtaking Argentina and Germany with victories in last month’s European Qualifiers.

4. Jose Mourinho reveled in what he labelled as his ‘moment’ after Chelsea fans made their support for the Portuguese manager very obvious in their Champions League victory over Dynamo Kiev.

5. Joe Hart believes Manchester City have set themselves a new Champions League benchmark after their stunning 3-1 victory over Sevilla on Tuesday.

6. Despite Arsenal being swatted aside by Bayern Munich yesterday, we reckon Xabi Alonso might be feeling just as low as they do right now after this nightmare with a corner (Eurosport).

7. It looks like even those within Manchester United are joining in with the “Mike” Smalling jokes after Bastian Schweinsteiger followed boss Louis van Gaal in calling the England defender by the wrong name (Bleacher Report).

8. David Gold thought he was doing the right thing, but instead was found guilty of quite an embarrassing mistake (BBC Sport).

9. Bayern’s run of banter with Spurs has continued into this week after last night’s game between Munich and Spurs’ North London rivals (TalkSport).

10. Not quite football, but close enough, check out what happened to this referee after he brandished a red card for misconduct to a Russian player (The Daily Record).