AS Roma club president James Pallotta has paid a fine and apologised to the mayor after celebrating his side’s remarkable win over Barcelona in the Champions League quarter-finals by leaping into a fountain on the Piazza del Popolo.
Pallotta admitted that he spent the next morning waiting for the phone to ring and, sure enough, it wasn’t long before he was forking out €450 (approx £390) to local authorities and saying sorry to Virginia Raggi, the Mayor of Rome.
However, to further seal his repentance, the 60-year-old American businessman also donated €230,000 (£199,196) to put towards the ongoing restoration of the famous Fontana del Pantheon.
00:00: #ASRoma President Pallotta celebrates 3-0 win by jumping in Piazza del Popolo fountain.
09:00: Pallotta fined €450 for jumping in fountain.
15:00: Pallotta apologises, pays fine & donates €230,000 to fix fountain in front of Pantheon.
Don’t jump in fountains kids! 🤣 pic.twitter.com/IBHwylgw82
— AS Roma English (@ASRomaEN) April 11, 2018
Speaking to the BBC World Football Show the day after the night before, Pallotta said:
There was no point where I thought I shouldn’t have done it (jumped into the fountain).
I have a history of going one step too far, going all the way back to college, so it didn’t faze me at all.
I thought, ‘why not start a thing called fix a fountain?’ If you jump in one you have to buy or fix one.
There’s a good lad.