• Newcastle winger made claims in newspaper interview
• Abd al Malik and his manager both plan to take legal action
Hatem Ben Arfa is to be sued for libel after claiming he was press-ganged into joining a sect by the French rapper Abd al Malik.
"A complaint will be filed," the artist's lawyer, Isabelle Weckstein said, adding that Al Malik's manager, Fabien Coste, was also suing the Newcastle United winger.
Ben Arfa claimed in an interview with L'Equipe that while he was a teenager at Lyon he was sucked into Sufism – a branch of Islam – "like in a sect" and he was "indoctrinated" and "virtually cut off from the rest of the world."
He said only his "ego" ended up "saving" him after he refused to kiss the feet of the ruling sheikh: "I could not accept doing that. I didn't like what I was experiencing with them. Thankfully I managed to get out."
Ben Arfa also told the newspaper that one of the reasons he clashed with coaches in the past was because his father never told him he loved him. The 24-year-old promised he is now a changed man and is attempting to become a model professional at Newcastle.