Eight Mexico stars dropped from Copa America over hooker scandal

Eight Mexican players have been excluded from the Copa America after being found using prostitutes at the side's training base.

The stars include Barcelona's Jonathan dos Santos, as well as Nestor Vidrio, Javier Cortes, Marco Fabian, Nestor Calderon, Liborio Sanchez, Israel Jimenez and David Cabrera.

Director of team selection Hector Gonzalez Inarritu confirmed that the group had been suspended for six months and fined £3,000 each.

The revelation came to light after several of the players complained of having personal possessions and cash stolen from their hotel rooms. An investigation revealed that hookers had been chaperoned to the players' rooms around the times of the robberies.

"I am not going into details of what happened," said Inarritu. "The rules were broken, the code of discipline was broken and I have to act.

"The players confessed. They are very hurt, very sorry and they have said they are sorry to their fans. They are assuming the consequences."

Mexico's first game of the tournament is against Chile next Monday night. They go on to face Peru on July 8 and Uruguay on July 12.