Former Tottenham midfielder Paulinho has been lambasted for promoting a betting company alongside Japanese porn star Tsukasa Aoi.

Paulinho, who now plies his trade for Chinese Super League side Guangzhou Evergrande, failed to notify his club of his commercial exploits and now finds himself under scrutiny from the Chinese side.

Both betting and pornography are illegal in China, but the 28-year-old insisted he was unaware of the occupation of his co-star in the advert and has since terminated his agreement with the betting firm.

Guangzhou Evergrande released a statement which said: ‘We conducted an internal investigation into Paulinho as soon as we learnt of the scandal through the media.

‘After the initial enquiries, we found that Paulinho had agreed to endorse the betting company without notifying the club in advance and he had failed to do the most basic due diligence required for this endorsement.’

Culled from Mail Sport