Uefa upstanding in their Paddy Power Pants

Uefa announce new official sponsorship deal with Paddy Power Pants

By Walter Broeckx

Somehow Nicklas Bendtner has something to do with his underpants. A few years ago we had the incident when after a game, he was caught with his trousers at knee height while leaving a club, showing his underpants. If I remember it correctly, Wenger was not that pleased with the incident. And with a few other incidents surrounding Bendtner since then.

I really wonder, if he doesn’t make it at Arsenal (and it looks that way), how much will all these incidents have contributed to him not making it? But that is something for another article.

The new underpants incident took place during Euro 2012. After scoring a goal, Bendtner showed a part of his underpants. Apparently, Bendtner has a good friend named Paddy who gave him this and as a token of appreciation for this gesture Bendtner revealed the underpants after having scored for Denmark. Because of his mate having the last name “Power” Nicklas finds himself in trouble.

If his friend were named Mc and something more Uefa would be fine with it. And Bendtner would be fine with it. But now he is fined with it. A fine of 100,000 Euro and a one game ban.

Isn’t it nice how UEFA (just like FIFA) always give you an extra reason to hate them more than I already did before? Now, I don’t care that much for Bendtner and his personal bank account as I think he will have enough money to deal with the fine and his friend Paddy will use his Power to let him survive the two weeks of lost wages. And the one game ban is, well I don’t care about international football, and if Bendtner would stay at Arsenal I would welcome this ban to be honest.

But the way UEFA reacts to this is just another example on what the only important thing for Uefa is. Uefa doesn’t care about football. They only care about money. Uefa doesn’t care about the players. The only thing they care about is their sponsors.

If UEFA did care about football, then what about the fact that the refs are not doing enough to protect the players? I have seen a few dangerous and reckless tackles that in some cases went totally unpunished and didn’t get the deserved red card. I hope I will be wrong but I really fear that before the tournament is over, we will see a terrible injury. You can see it coming. You can tackle with your studs showing, but the ref will not blow (well some do, actually) but don’t argue with the ref, or the card will come out in a flash.

I agree you don’t have to argue with the ref but I still do think a foul that can cause serious injury is worse than a player saying something to the ref. As far as I know, a word has never caused an injury. Don’t get me wrong, I completely agree with giving yellow cards to moaning players but the main task of the refs is to punish dangerous tackles with cards. I do think that the ref will have less moaning around him if he started doing that.

I have noticed a lot of studs-up tackles this tournament. Maybe the players are trying to see how far they can go and for the moment, the refs aren’t taking much notice. And we all know that what happens in a tournament: it filters through to the national leagues. So I am holding my breath for what might happen in football next season.

Let us go back to the Power that controls football and I don’t mean Paddy but UEFA. They now appear to give the signal wherein kicking your opponents in a dangerous way is normal. But showing your sponsored Paddy Power underpants is a criminal offence. I think Bendtner in a way can call himself lucky that it is 2012 and not 1012 because I think he would have been quartered and hung by now. Well, maybe they have thought about that but maybe they’ll keep that scoop for FIFA at the next World Cup and for a Dutch Bavaria girl that is wearing the wrong dress.

I think they must be laughing at all this at the headquarters of Paddy Power. I can tell you that when it happened I never even looked for a split second at Bendtner or his underpants. I’m not that interested in a man or his underpants to be honest, but that is just a personal thing. So I never saw the advert – until UEFA made a big thing about it.

UEFA would have been smart if they would have let it go and I would never have heard of Paddy Power at all. But now, by drawing attention to it, I get all kind of pictures in my newspapers focussing on that illegal sponsor. Since then I have seen the name on pictures and written in the newspapers.

In fact, by turning this in to a capital offence they have just played into the hands of Paddy Power. Had UEFA ignored it, nobody would have noticed it that much. But now they’ve made a fuss about it and so Paddy had his name in the papers for almost a week together with the picture of the famous underpants. In fact, I think they are turning into the most famous underpants in football now. And Paddy will have his name mentioned right up to September, because when Denmark play their next international game, the fact that Bendtner is suspended will be linked to his Paddy underpants again and we will see the pictures once again in the newspapers. All thanks to that witch hunt from UEFA.

I would rather prefer that UEFA did a witch hunt on dangerous play. I would rather like it if UEFA did something about serious foul play. Because that is what they should care about. Not a player showing a part of his underpants. But football is not about football any more for UEFA. It is just a money spinning machine and the money is the all important thing for Uefa.

I have heard a rumour that Uefa actually was looking for a way to play the EC without having teams on the field but the sponsors didn’t like the idea at all to just show 2 x 45 minutes of only rotating advertising boards and a survey amongst people who bought tickets showed that they also were not really willing to pay for just that.

PS: I have nothing to do with gambling at all but just to show my middle finger to UEFA, I have tried to use the name of that sponsor as much as possible (could we ask them to pay us Tony?)

PS2: In fact I really don’t like it when a player has a gambling office as a private sponsor

PS3: In fact I think it should be forbidden by law for gambling offices to sponsor football teams at all.

PS4: Just as I said Fick FUFA 2 years ago, I will now say Feck UEFA (that sounds about right).

PS5: Bendtner will appeal the ban and the fine much to the enjoyment of Paddy Power