Features

When sports stars go mad

Author: John Harris
Date: 14/03/2010
Rugby Union betting

Wales rugby star Andy Powell has been punished for his infamous golf buggy driving episode last month.

The flanker was arrested after taking the cart from the hotel grounds where he and his team-mates stayed following their last-gasp 31-24 win against Scotland on February 13.

He was charged with drink driving and the 28-year-old was disqualified from driving for 15 months and fined £1,000 for his act of foolhardiness.

Now that the dust has settled upon the incident, it gives us an opportunity to look at other rash judgements by sportsmen who have fell foul of conforming to a professional approach.

Edmundo

Former Brazil, Vasco da Gama, Fiorentina and Napoli striker Edmundo made the headlines for all the wrong reasons back in 1999.

The hot-headed front man, also known as 'The Animal', was pictured at his son's first birthday party supplying a chimpanzee called Pedrinho beer.

Animal rights activists called for him to face prosecution after hiring an entire circus to perform in his back garden.

Diego Maradona

Breaking the hearts of England fans, taking cocaine and shooting journalists were once favoured pastimes of the mercurial Diego Maradona.

It was Maradona's air rifling assault on four journalists that landed him in hot water in Buenos Aires in 1994, despite the case being settled some four years later in 1998.

Can Diego Maradona lead sportsbook fourth favourites Argentina to World Cup glory this summer in South Africa? - Latest Football Betting

Crouching behind a car outside his home in the capital, he and two assailants opened fire on the four men chasing a story, and for his antics he was given a suspended jail sentence of two years and ten months.

Andrew Flintoff

Talismanic England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff was stripped of his vice-captaincy after being photographed falling off a pedalo following a World Cup game in Saint Lucia in 2007.

Following the defeat to New Zealand, Flintoff and friends went on a night out and proceeded to go for a late night paddle.

His bosses didn't find it funny and took the necessary steps to reprimand the Lancashire man and ban him for the game against Canada.

After a press conference, he said: "There's no secret we had a few drinks on Friday. It's been documented in the press what happened afterwards with a little bit of poetic licence.

"There was water involved and a pedalo as well. But I don't want to go into detail."

James Anderson, Jon Lewis, Ian Bell, Paul Nixon and Liam Plunkett were the other players fined.

BET NOW