Italy forward Francesco Totti, one of the biggest names at Euro 2004, has been banned for three matches for spitting at Denmark’s Christian Poulsen. European soccer’s governing body (UEFA) ruled on Thursday that Totti had been guilty of “gross unsporting conduct” after viewing video evidence from the Group C game in Guimaraes on Monday which ended 0-0.“We will not tolerate this kind of behaviour,” said UEFA spokesman William Gaillard. “We did not tolerate it in the past and we will not tolerate it in the future.” Totti, looking serious, left the building without comment after a hearing lasting more than three hours in a Lisbon hotel. The ban means Totti will miss the remaining two Group C games against Sweden and Bulgaria, and the quarter-finals if Italy get that far. It is a serious Italian news agency Ansa quoted the lawyers as saying they were partially satisfied by the ruling which “leaves open the door to a decision on an appeal after seeing the reasons behind the sentence”. The official Italian team brochure produced for Euro 2004 describes Totti as “a symbol of Italian football worldwide” and the forward has several lucrative sponsorship deals. The Totti case recalls an ugly incident at the 1990 World Cup when Dutchman Frank Rijkaard spat at German Rudi Voeller during a match in Milan. Both players were suspended, though Voeller returned to help his team win the tournament. In the most recent similar case in European competition, Lazio’s Serbian defender Sinisa Mihajlovic was banned for eight games after spitting at Chelsea striker Adrian Mutu in a Champions League match in November. France playmaker Zinedine Zidane was suspended for two matches at the 1998 World Cup for stamping on an opponent, like Voeller returning to the team and going on to win the title. In the 1994 World Cup, Italy’s Mauro Tassotti was banned for eight matches for elbowing Spain’s Luis Enrique. The referee did not see the incident and Tassotti was charged on video evidence. His ban effectively ended his international career. (Reuters) Totti is a rarity in modern soccer as he plays for the club he supported as a boy. He made his debut for Roma as a 16-year-old in ‘93 and has long been an idol of the ultras in the ‘Curve Sud’, the home of the hardcore fans in the South end of Rome’s Olympic stadium Who ‘Framed’ Totti It was the Player-Cam, focused all through the match by Danish broadcasters on Totti and Poulsen, which exposed the Italian’s sin. Pioneered by digital broadcasters and inspired by the reality show Big Brother the Player-Cam captures each move of the players it is focused on He was anxious to make amends for the World Cup when he was sent off for diving as Italy lost to South Korea. On that occasion he was seen as an innocent victim of poor refereeing His Roman accent and rough-and-ready manner earned him the reputation for being slow-witted and made him the butt of countless jokes. He turned the tables by publishing a book entitled All the Totti Jokes, Collected by Me and donating the proceeds to charity
