IRISH ONLINE GAMBLING company Paddy Power today said it would pay the UEFA fine imposed on Denmark’s Nicklas Bendtner for flashing the sponsored waistband of his underpants during a goal celebration.
Sunderland forward Bendtner was yesterday slapped with a €100,000 fine and a one-match suspension for the stunt, which happened during last Wednesday’s Group B match between Denmark and Portugal.
The punishment has been criticised as excessively harsh, with many detractors pointing out that European football’s governing body had issued lesser penalties for more serious offences like violence and racist chanting. The Dublin-based firm said on its website: “We’ve decided to foot the bill for the fine. Paddy Power are paying Bendtner’s massively over the top 100,000-euro fine.”
Spokesman Ken Robertson added: “We don’t believe that Nicklas should be penalised for nothing more serious than wearing his lucky underpants which in fairness was only a bit of fun.”
UEFA’s disciplinary committee imposed the sanction on Bendtner for improper conduct and flouting Law 4 of the Laws of the Games covering players’ equipment.
The law states: “Players must not reveal undershirts which contain slogans or advertising. A player removing his jersey to reveal slogans will be sanctioned by the competition organiser.
Article 18.18 of the “Regulations of the UEFA European Football Championship 2010-12″ also states: “All kit items worn during the final tournament must be free of any sponsor advertising.”
Bendtner can appeal but if he is unsuccessful will miss Denmark’s opening 2014 World Cup qualifier.
Money and sponsorship matter to UEFA than tolerance and non-violence.
The Russian FA got a €30,000 fine because of the russian supporters fighting and racism, he gets €100,000 fine for showing advertising on his underwear. Its wrong…..
He would have got a smaller fine if the underpants had of said “White Power” rather than “Paddy Power”
Turn off the internet, that is the best comment ever right there.
€100,000 for showing advertising on your underpants.
€20,000 for racism.
That tells you all about the open sore on football that UEFA is.
And yet they’re still not as bad as FIFA.
Have to hand it to Paddy Power, you can’t buy this amount of publicity although you can be fined it. Ingenius marketing.
While the average fine to various F.A’s is 20k for racism!
Where is the logic in fining one player 100,000 for doing something as innocent as briefly showing the name of a bookmakers, while fining the Croatian football association 25,000 euros for far from innocent racist abuse from their supporters?
they’re giving away pairs of these lucky pants on Twitter now
Ah fair play to PP for looking after the poor footballer!! Any chance of PP returning the money that I lost to them over the years!!
Great marketing stunt… Very Michael o Leary like!!!
€100,000? That’s harsh.
i wud luvvvv them pants fukin class!!!!!!
Conor what’s the profile pic you and a few of the other guys are using? And what does it represent?
just wondering that myself…
Do you want his pants?
They must be all related.
It’s not difficult to comprehend, folks. UEFA get $$$$$$ from sponsorship, that will be pulled if they tolerate ambush marketing. They get no money from anti racism campaigners. That’s the world we live in, money dictates policy in every aspect.
Seb Blatter is a joke and I think that fine is a joke
?100k fine for a bit of ambush marketing and a?80K fine for monkey chants and banana throwing at Balotelli. UEFA are a disgrace.
What has Sepp Blatter got to do with it? This is a UEFA matter, not FIFA’s.
Yeah but Sepp Blatter is a joke anyway. Never turn down a opportunity to bash that odieus toad.
Cheap publicity but its pretty tawdry deal for him to do, he is playing for his county and instead will flash paddy power underwear for whatever few quid they threw at him on top of paying the inevitable fine, if an Irish player did this it would be pretty embarrassing, fortunately it seems they have more respect because undoubtably a cheap brand like paddy power would have been happy for an Irish player to similarly embarrass themselves in the name of cheap publicity
quote from the article: Article 18.18 of the “Regulations of the UEFA European Football Championship 2010-12″ also states: “All kit items worn during the final tournament must be free of any sponsor advertising.”
What about the Adidas or Nike logo – is that not a sponsor advertisement?
We all know how corrupt UEFA and FIFA are – somplete tools running the show
How low can you go advertising more like! What next paddy power tatoe on the cheeks of his arse!
Tatoe?
I think he meant tayto.
LOL Joseph.. I think you got the jest of it though.
€30,000 fine for racism.
€100,000 fine for showing your underpants.
Uefa are big bunch of stupid morans..
how do u get a profile pic!!!!!!!