The trial of French football stars Franck Ribery and Karim Benzema for having sex with an underage prostitute opened Tuesday without the two defendants or the woman at the centre of the scandal.

In a case that has cast light on a murky world of seamy Parisian nightclubs frequented by some of the French capital's showbiz set, Bayern Munich winger Ribery, 30, and Real Madrid forward Benzema, 25, face up to three years in prison and a maximum 45,000 euro ($55,000) fine if convicted.