Paddy Power picks up the tab after ridiculous Bendtner fine

On the same day that UEFA fined Croatian fans €80,000 for racial abuse - €20,000 less than Nicklas Bendtner for his Paddy Power pants - the bookmakers have picked up the tab for the Dane.

Having scored against Portugal in a Euro 2012 group stage tie last week, the confident striker exposed a pair of green boxers adorned with the Paddy Power name and although he was publicly reprimanded for doing so, UEFA were especially appalled by the act of steath marketing.

In fact UEFA decided to come down extremely hard on the Arsenal striker, fining him a massive €100,000 and issuing him with a one game competitive ban, meaning that he will miss the opening game of Denmark’s World Cup qualifying campaign. Thankfully, sense has prevailed and today the Irish bookmakers announced that they would pay the fine for the striker instead.

A spokesperson from Paddy Power said today: “We pride ourselves on listening to our customers and what we heard loud and clear yesterday was that Nicklas Bendtner should not suffer as a result of UEFA’s double standards.

"We don’t believe that Nicklas should be penalised for nothing more serious than wearing his lucky underpants which in fairness was only a bit of fun."

Paddy Power are also issuing an alert to all other players intending to wear their own lucky underpants in the remaining UEFA fixtures to keep the string tied tightly on their shorts so that they too don’t face the wrath of the "over the top UEFA pants police".

In a startling display of priorities, UEFA today handed out an €80,000 fine - €20,000 less than that of Bendtner - to Croatia for racist chanting and improper conduct directed at Italian striker Mario Balotelli in a Euro 2012 clash last week. Oh, UEFA...