Berlusconi condemned for promising his football team a 'bus' of sex workers

Silvio Berlusconi was synonymous with sleaze and scandal during his political career, and it looks like things haven’t changed.

The former Italian prime minister has been filmed telling his players at Monza that he would bring a “bus” full of prostitutes to their locker room if they beat the biggest sides in Serie A.

“I told the guys ... now you will play Milan, Juventus. If you win against one of these top teams, I'll bring a bus of whores into the locker room," Berlusconi says in the clip posted on social media.

The footage was recorded on Tuesday (December 13) at a Christmas dinner for the Monza players.

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Berlusconi was the owner of AC Milan for nearly thirty years, and he bought Monza in 2018.

The comments in the video were widely criticised online, with Daniela Sbrollini of the centrist opposition Italia Viva party, calling it the "usual misogynist language from Berlusconi: a joke in bad taste that leaves you speechless".

The 86-year-old was accused of having sex with an underage prostitute in 2011. He was acquitted on appeal in 2015 after it was ruled that he had not known she was a minor.

He was also temporarily barred from public office after a conviction for tax fraud in 2013.

Monza were promoted to Serie A for the first time in 2022 and are currently in 14th place.

Berlusconi was prime minister of Italy from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011.

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