Fines for footballers

PROFESSIONAL footballers should be prosecuted for assaulting opponents, according to Judge Richard Benson.

Judge Benson, sitting in Nottingham Crown Court, sentenced a 49-year-old amateur footballer to two year's probation and fined him u300 for causing actual bodily harm to an opposing player by headbutting him during a match.

Benson said: "Paolo di Canio pushed over a referee. That is common assault. Why he was not brought up on these charges I do not know."

He added: "Sometimes the Scots get it right. Duncan Fergusson, who assaulted a player, was sent away for six months, and quite right too."



The Independent