Uefa upstanding in their Paddy Power Pants « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News, supporting the club, the players and the manager

Uefa announce new official sponsorship deal with Paddy Power Pants

By Walter Broeckx

Somehow Nicklas Bendtner has something with his underpants. A few years ago we had the incident when after a game he was being caught with his trousers at knee height when leaving a club and showing his underpants. If I remember it correct 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 all those incidents will have contributed to not making it. But that is something for another article.

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

If his friend would be 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 lost of wages. And the one game ban is well I don’t care about international football and if Bendtner would stay at Arsenal I even would welcome this ban to be honest.

But the way Uefa reacts to this is just another example on what the only important thing is for Uefa. 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 would 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 totally went 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 studs showing the ref will not blow (well some do actually thanks goodness) 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 that making 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 as for a tackle… Don’t get me wrong I completely agree with given yellow cards to moaning players but the main task of the refs is to punish the dangerous tackles with yellow or red cards. I do think that the ref will have less moaning around him if he started doing it like that.

And I have noticed a lot of studs showing tackles this tournament. Maybe the players are trying to see how far they can go and for the moment the refs didn’t take much notice (apart from a few one). And we all know that what happens in a tournament (world cup or EC) 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 of course but Uefa. They now give the signal that 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 keep that scoop for Fifa at the next World cup and for a Dutch Bavaria girl that is wearing the wrong dress.

I think at the headquarters of Paddy Power they must be laughing like mad with all this. 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 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.

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

In fact by turning this in to a capital offence they have just played in the hands of Paddy Power. Had Uefa ignored it nobody would have noticed it that much. But now they 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 in to the most famous underpants in football by now.  And Paddy will have his name mentioned even till September now. Because you can imagine that when Denmark plays its next international game the fact that Bendtner is suspended will be linked with his Paddy underpants again and we will see the pictures again coming in the newspapers.  All thanks to the witch hunt from Uefa.

I rather would like it that Uefa does a witch hunt on dangerous play. I rather would like it that 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 well 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 somehow 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 that gambling offices cannot sponsor football teams at all.

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

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

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