Bendtner’s pants.
It’s a phrase I’ve often used while watching the English Premier League over the past few years.
Now it’s a headline.
Photo: Reuters
Note to non-Brits: Pants — noun/adjective: Nonsense, rubbish, bad. From the standard British English of pants, meaning underwear.
As reported in yesterday’s edition of this newspaper, on Monday Denmark’s Nicklas Bendtner was banned for one match and fined 100,000 euros (US$126,000) by UEFA bigwigs for flashing the sponsored waistband of his underpants while celebrating a goal during last Wednesday’s 3-2 defeat by Portugal.
Bendtner revealed a Paddy Power logo, an Irish-British online betting company, across his green underpants as he lifted his shirt to celebrate scoring his country’s equalizer in the Group B match.
It means that Denmark, if an appeal fails, will be without their top striker for their crucial World Cup qualifier against the Czech Republic in September.
It is a ridiculous punishment and when you start comparing it with the fines UEFA has seen fit to hand out for racism, it becomes embarrassing.
For example, in June 2008 Croatia fans were found guilty of “displaying a racist banner and showing racist conduct” during a Euro 2008 quarter-final against Turkey.
The punishment?
The Croatian Football Federation was fined 12,000 euros.
Then, yesterday, Croatia were fined 80,000 euros for their fans’ racist abuse of Mario Balotelli during their group match against Italy.
So, according to UEFA, Bendtner’s crime, breaking a rule that he claimed he was unaware of, was 20,000 euros more heinous an offense than racist chanting.
Idiots.
So what of the company in question?
In retaliation, the betting firm issued a statement revealing that they would pay the fine, labeling UEFA “hysterical and deeply cynical.”
A statement posted on Twitter by the company read: “Inspired by your Twitter feedback, we have agreed to pay the barmy 100k fine that #Uefa dished out Nicklas Bendtner.”
Paddy Power later launched the hashtag “Powerpants” and revealed that they would send out 3,000 pairs of the incriminating underwear to their social media followers.
Yes, free pants.
Indeed, Paddy Power has a publicity department that rivals People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), whose stunts, usually involving semi-naked women, have regularly adorned the pages of this newspaper over the past few years.
England is a nation obsessed with the Beautiful Game and it is very successfully used as a marketing tool during major championships, but nobody does it quite as well as Paddy Power.
Their Euro 2012 blitz began with the construction of Roy the Redeemer.
As reported in British daily the Mirror, the company responded to the plight of anxious England fans, who felt their team needed some “divine intervention” to find success at Euro 2012, with the construction and unveiling of a 30m tall reproduction of the iconic Christ the Redeemer statue which overlooks Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The statue, which replaces the face of Christ with new “savior” England manager Roy Hodgson, has been constructed on the white cliffs of Dover and it is visible from the coast of France. It was hoped that the looming face of Roy the Redeemer would unsettle Les Bleus ahead of England’s opening match, a game that finished 1-1.
The dimensions of the structure replicate those of its famous Brazilian inspiration and it is kept in place by two cranes positioned behind the statue.
“Since Christ the Redeemer was constructed in Rio de Janeiro in 1931, Brazil has gone on to become the world’s leading footballing nation. We’re hoping some of that success can rub off on England in time for their Euro 2012 opener against France ... Anyway, at the end of the day, this is definitely the closest Roy will get to Rio this month,” the Mirror quoted Paddy Power’s Ken Robertson as saying.
Paddy Power didn’t stop there, though, oh no.
Next up was their giant truck-mounted vuvuzela, which can be viewed on the company’s YouTube channel.
UEFA banned vuvuzelas from stadiums in Poland and Ukraine during the Euros following their widespread use at the World Cup in South Africa in 2010, but at least one of the betting firm’s customers complained.
As well as starring in one of the firm’s ads, the giant vuvuzela was paraded around the streets of London in support of the Three Lions before their match against Sweden last Friday.
It even made pit stops at a branch of IKEA and the Swedish embassy.
According the British daily the Sun, at 9m long and with a trumpet 2m across, the “We Hear You” vuvuzela can generate a deafening 138 decibels of noise.
The company then shipped it to Dublin in time for Ireland’s match with Italy on Monday.
“We may be shite at football, but Irish people are world champs at celebrating defeat. We’re hoping our vuvuzela truck will galvanize fans around the ‘Boys in Green’ for one last party tomorrow night [Monday]. Let’s go out with a bang,” Robertson said.
Let’s just hope the idiots who make the decisions at UEFA go out with bang, too.
Four-time NBA all-star DeMarcus Cousins arrived in Taiwan with his family early yesterday to finish his renewed contract with the Taiwan Beer Leopards in the T1 League. Cousins initially played a four-game contract with the Leopards in January. On March 18, the Taoyuan-based team announced that Cousins had renewed his contract. “Hi what’s up Leopard fans, I’m back. I’m excited to be back and can’t wait to join the team,” Cousins said in a video posted on the Leopard’s Facebook page. “Most of all, can’t wait to see you guys, the fans, next weekend. So make sure you come out and support the Beer
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was