David Villa Fined €3,000 For ‘Impossible Without You’ T-Shirt Message

Chris Wright

23rd, August 2012

11 Comments

By Chris Wright

The Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) have seen fit to fine David Villa the princely sum of €3,000 for the heinous act of baring an emotional thank-you message to his family on an undershirt after scoring on his comeback from a broken leg against Real Sociedad at the weekend.

The RFEF classes the removal of a shirt to display any form of publicity, slogan or picture as a serious offence punishable with a fine of between €2,000 and €3,000, and it would appear they are punishing Villa (who was also booked at the time) to the full extent of the law for having the temerity to publicly thank his wife and his little girls for their support during his grueling nine-month injury rehabilitation.

What a bastard.

As we’ve said before and will no doubt say again several thousand times: It’s a dumb, completely ineffective law and it needs to be scrapped pronto.

Posted in Barcelona, FAIL, Kits & fashion

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11 Comments

  1. orangeket says:

    Not against Valencia..

  2. Ernest says:

    my understanding is that the reasoning behind it is for sponsors. so that when a goal is scored the sponsor’s name gets maximum coverage. money runs the world and all that

  3. Parigi says:

    Granted, $3000 for Villa is probably €30 for me, so no biggie.
    But biggie if you realize he is fined the same way De Jong was for kicking Xabi in the chest at the South Africa world cup final.
    Lesson: vicious kick of opponent = thanking wife and children.

  4. plops says:

    What is the actual point of getting a yellow card for removing the shirt? I’ve heard what Ernest says before, I can understand the political statements on a shirt they sometimes go on about, but what about when they’re just running around topless waving their shirt? Excessive celebrating? Timewasting?

    Personally I’d rather they kept their shirts on, I don’t really care what they have to say. It seems a more recent thing, taking your shirt off (and especially having a slogan underneath). Although ‘Why always me?’ was a good one, so I’ll let him off because it’s Mario.

  5. Nuno says:

    @plops
    It’s all about the money, why else…?
    Just like Bendtner’s pants in the Euro, UEFA doesn’t want anyone else receiving money for publicity, otherwise companies would pay top scorers to show their shirts and that would decrease other publicity revenues. As sometimes there’s a very thin line on what is publicity and what is not, UEFA decided to ban the lifting of the shirt altogether and prohibiting any message.
    Example: here in Portugal one of our top scorers a few years back (Jardel, at the time playing for Sporting Lisbon) got the following shirts when he scored (rough translation…):
    – Why is it? (for 3 to 4 games)
    – Is it?(another couple games)
    – Is it because of Guaraná? (drink) – first shown in a derby against Benfica, I think.
    I know it seems stupid but in Portuguese that rhymes (Porque será, será, será do Guaraná) and it is the company’s advertising slogan.
    It seemed innocuous at first and got people talking, but then it was just pure advertising.

  6. […] 2000 euros (1583 pounds) and 3000 euros. Spain's all-time top scorer came on as a …David Villa Fined €3000 For 'Impossible Without You' T-Shirt MessageWho Ate All The PiesDavid Villa receives fine for revealing t-shirtSports Moleall 18 news […]

  7. orangeket says:

    @Chris Just a report. Not an attempt to be pedantic :)

  8. usrick says:

    This kind of blatant personal communication must be stopped or the next thing you know Messi will be using his undershirt to with his granny happy birthday.
    Oh, wait – never mind.

  9. Fat Nakago says:

    And here I thought that the NFL was the No Fun League.

  10. Mr. Chopper says:

    How come City players all seem to have custom printed shirts for when they score and this is all right? Did I miss the memo?

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