Thursday, October 11, 2007

Follow-up: Dida suspended and fined

A.C. Milan goalkeeper Dida was suspended for two games and fined over $50,000 following his theatrics after being lightly slapped by a Celtic fan during a Champions League match last week. Europe’s governing body on soccer- UEFA- ruled that the Brazilian goalie’s actions were not “according to the principles of loyalty, integrity and sportsmanship.” A lawyer for the Italian club side said that an appeal might be lodged based on the “excessive” punishment:

“It seems to us a very, very unbalanced sentence. It turns Dida into the protagonist of the incident, whereas the protagonist was someone else, and that's not right from a logical point of view.”

Celtic was not exempt from culpability, however; the club will have to pay a $50,000 fine for lack of security in permitting a fan to intrude during the game.

Was UEFA correct in its punishment? This video of the incident seems to show that while the fan was stupid to enter the pitch Dida overreacted after being touched:

Sources- AFP, Canadian Press, Times Online, The Latin Americanist, YouTube

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