By Chris Wright
Both the cheapest and most effective advert Paddy Power have ever taken out
UEFA have announced this afternoon that Nicklas Bendtner has been fined a ludicrous €100,000 (£80,000) and will also be banned for one match after exposing the waistband on his ‘Paddy Power’ pants after scoring against Portugal. He has three days to appeal, but we’re guessing the ‘just my lucky shreddies’ defence might fall flat.
Just to add, this is the very same UEFA that fined Russia £96,000 (just £16k more than Bendtner) after a group of their fans beat the living snot out of stewards last week and fined Porto the princely sum of £16,700 for their fans giving Mario Balotelli the monkey chant treatment last season (in the same game, City were fined £24,000 for taking to the field for the second half two minutes late) – thus rendering Bendtner’s dumb pants prank about £63,000 ‘worse’ than aggressive racism on Platini and co’s ‘Big List Of Naughties’ pricing index.
Indeed past Euro fines handed out for racist abuse include Spain in 2004 (£45,000), Serbia in 2007 (£16,500) and Croatia in 2008 (£10,000) – which should give you a good idea of the sponsor-centric priorities involved here.
Makes you wonder if Bendtner’s fine would’ve been reduced if he’d have stuck something altogether less offensive – say, the ‘N’ word – on his waistband instead of a non-UEFA approved online betting firm (who, incidentally, must be creaming themselves over all the free publicity they’re getting).
*Sigh*