Italian Player Gets 5-Game Ban for 'Urinating Towards Opponents' During Serie D Match

What would you do if you urgently needed to go to the loo in the middle of a game (and your name isn't Gary Lineker)?

In most cases, especially during Sunday league matches, the easiest thing to do is just to call for a break and run towards the fitting rooms, or, alternatively, to hold off your urges until the final whistle. 

For those who could not bear playing 45 minutes in such conditions, however, midfielder Giovanni Liberti, who plays in fourth tier team Turrris, might just have the solution. This young and certainly eccentric player from Torre del Greco, Italy, has been inflicted a five-game ban because, in absence of a loo nearby, he allegedly urinated on the pitch (via ESPN).

The misdemeanour occurred during a Serie D match between Liberti's outfit Turris and Sarnese, which ended 3-3 last week.

Image by Chris Deeley

Whether his sudden need to do so was due to an overdose of water during the halftime break or, more presumably, by the juvenile wish to mock his opponents, Liberti felt that it was necessary to leave a mark on his team's home grounds. 

According to Serie D disciplinary body, towards the end of the game, young Liberti allegedly "urinated in the direction of the away section, making obscene and vulgar gestures, while showing his genital organ" and will, therefore, be punished with a five-game ban from playing. 

Yet what appeared to be a clear gesture of mock by the Turris midfielder may, on the contrary, be just a misinterpretation of the facts. 

Turris, in fact, will appeal the ban. Club president Antonio Colantonio insisted that "Liberti absolutely did not do what is alleged."

The unlucky hosts, who, on that day, had a privileged, first-row view of Liberti's glorious actions, could be mistaken: "There's a fountain near the wall and the player...was drinking and adjusting his shirt which, by regulation, should be inside his shorts," Colantonio said.

He added: "The visiting club confirmed to us that our player did not do anything that has been alleged."

Unbiased eyewitnesses could eventually be needed in order to solve the possible misunderstanding and clear innocent Liberti of charges.