Itlaian News: BOOKED FOR EXCESSIVE FINGERING

By Italian Football
December 11 2004

Well kind of Sportnetwork Italia will go all European in the next month or so, bringing you every league in Europe, well maybe not Turkish unless someone out there can speak Persian and would like to let me know.

Here is a first from our Swiss writer (and soon to be German) hope you enjoy. We intend to bring the best and worst from all around Europe, normally with an English bias, so here is the start:

BOOKED FOR EXCESSIVE FINGERING

The - traditionally - few fans which found last sunday their way into swiss
underdogs Schaffhausen^s almost decayed "Breite-Stadion" were for once
really shocked. And this time not mainly because their club suffered an
other loss which cemented their position at the bottom of the league, but
because they became testimonies of an incident which was not only in swiss
football singular.

Paolo Diogo, 29, caught his wedding ring on perimeter fencing while
celebrating a late goal in Sunday's match which put his struggling Geneva
side 4-1 ahead against Schaffhausen. The ring ripped off the top of his
finger.

"When I jumped down from the fence, I didn't feel anything at all," Diogo
told the Swiss daily "Blick". Indeed, the player looked like he wanted to
continue, only those around didn`t want anymore...

"The first time that I noticed that something was missing from my hand was
when is started to hurt. And it hurt tremendously."

Before he noticed the injury, the unlucky portuguese picked up a booking
from referee Florian Etter for excessive celebration.

Although the missing finger was found and followed Diogo fastly into the
hospital , surgeons were unable to reattach it and recommended that the
stump should be amputated.

"First I talked to my wife and then with our club doctor," Diogo said. "Then
finally I saw that amputation was for the best."

Diogo said he tries to take it philosophical:

"I'm not dead and life goes on. So I have to live with one less finger"

The swiss football association refuses to annul the booking, which is
understandeable, because there is no juridical foundation for that. But a
little bit more "Fingerspitzengefühl"... would not have been at the wrong
place.

This whole matter does not only put a light on the pitifull condition of
many swiss grounds, but raises also the question why it is still allowed to
play with rings or jewels, or why they are at least not obligatory to be
taped in switzerland.

Now an e-mail address is soon to be set up and for football stories I will offer translations as long as we can go with the source, we have a small team with 15 languages covered between us, give us ideas and we will go with it.