Catania’s Gianvito Plasmati engaged in an unusual bit of distraction when he pulled down his shorts before team mate Giuseppe Mascara curled in a freekick during a 3-2 Serie A win over Torino.

According to Italy’s referees’ chief and former top official Pierluigi Collina, showing off your underpants to a rival goalkeeper counts as unsporting behaviour and deserved a yellow card.

“It was a student joke,” Plasmati said. “It certainly wasn’t a lack of respect for opponents and the public.”

At first no one noticed Plasmati’s stunt because pundits were more concerned with Catania’s controversial tactic of building their own wall, five metres behind the Torino wall, and then charging forward in time to avoid being offside when Mascara took the kick.

Catania boss Walter Zenga also got into trouble this weekend when he told a television interviewer to watch his back and take care of his family during an extraordinary rant.

What do you make of Catania’s antics? Are they refreshing or a bit too silly? They are certainly helping the modest club punch above their weight in Serie A.

Why don’t teams put a man on the post when defending a free kick? Week after week I see free kicks fly into the corner of the net with the keeper helpless at the other side of the goal.

The match winner from Owen Hargreaves in Manchester United’s 2-1 victory over Arsenal on Sunday is a case in point. Here in Italy at least one free kick is scored like that every weekend. 

Top players are getting so good at whipping the lighter balls up and down over a wall that a free kick near the box is almost like a penalty. Yet I think a man on the post would halve the number of free kicks that go in.

The reason teams don’t put a man on the post is because this would negate any possibility of offside. Currently attackers have to stay roundabout level with the wall to avoid being offside.

But why would allowing the attackers to mill around the box make it more likely the opposition would score from the free kick? Surely more players close to the keeper in the box blocks the path of the free kick taker.

Yes, the goalkeeper may become unsighted, but he can never be as unsighted as he is now when he has five men stood in a line infront of him.

I’ve never been that convinced on the need for a wall either…but we’ll leave that for another day.

Mark Meadows, Milan

PHOTO: Manchester United’s Owen Hargreaves scores a free kick against Arsenal, April 13. REUTERS/Darren Staples