Euro 2012: Brief advertising line costs Nicklas Bendtner €100k

DENMARK striker Nicklas Bendtner has paid a heavy price for his underpants stunt.

Bendtner was banned for one 2014 World Cup qualifying match for revealing an unofficial sponsor’s name on his underwear while celebrating a goal at the European Championship.

Uefa said its disciplinary panel found the 24-year-old Bendtner guilty of “improper conduct,” and also fined him e100,000.

The punishment rules him out of the Danes’ opening World Cup qualifier, at home to the Czech Republic on 8 September.

“We will appeal the decision and take it from there,” Bendtner told Danish TV as the team returned to Copenhagen after exiting Euro 2012 on Sunday after losing to Germany 2-1.

Bendtner’s financial penalty is the second highest imposed by Uefa at Euro 2012. The Russian football association was fined e120,000 after their fans attacked stadium stewards in Wroclaw following the team’s group game against the Czech Republic.

Bendtner raised his shirt and lowered the top of his shorts slightly, revealing the name of a betting firm across the top of his underpants, after scoring his second goal in a 3-2 loss against Portugal last Wednesday. The laws of football managed by Fifa relating to players’ equipment also state that players “must not reveal undergarments showing slogans or advertising”.

Uefa tournament rules also bar ambush marketing by unofficial sponsors or advertising on players’ kit. European Championship matches typically get average worldwide ratings of 150 million television viewers, who are counted if they watch at least 30 minutes of a game.

The Irish gambling firm Paddy Power, which based a marketing campaign around the “lucky pants” later worn by Bendtner, said it would support his appeal.

“This is a hysterical and deeply cynical move by Uefa dictated by pure commercialism and is a far greater penalty than recent Uefa fines for far more serious incidents,” the company said in a statement on its website.