A Tackle so Bad the Penalty is Prison

Coelho may think he has it tough, getting a four month ban for his spot of seal clubbing, but at least he’s not spending any time behind bars. A court in Salti, in northern Argentina recently sentenced 37 year old Marcelo Cil to a year in prison and a 20,000 peso fine for the challenge he made. From what I can piece together with a primitive understanding of Spanish (original article)and a well earned mistrust of Google Translate, the incident took place way back in October 2004 during an amateur match and Celi apparently struck Mario Ruiz in the face with his forearm, damaging the sight in one of Ruiz’ eyes.

The body governing the league Celi played in has also handed him a whopping 60 month – or five year – ban. There’s no YouTube video to show you, but that may be a good thing. A foul bad enough to nearly blind a man, and to warrant a year in prison, probably wouldn’t be very pleasant viewing.

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Category: South America, World Football