Football team scores by dropping shorts in what official calls 'unsportsmanlike'

Italian Serie A side Catania has come up with a creative way to score from a free kick: block the goalkeeper's vision by having players drop their shorts down in a wall.

The Sicilian team carried out the manoeuvre to perfection when Giuseppe Mascara scored in last Sunday's 3-2 win over Torino.



Three Catania players dropped their shorts down near their knees so Torino goalkeeper Matteo Sereni couldn't see Mascara's kick.

"This is a strategy that (Catania coach Walter) Zenga tries continually in training," the club's chief executive Pietro Lo Monaco said.



Former referees co-ordinator Paolo Casarin called the move "unsportsmanlike and in bad taste. It's a trick that should not be tolerated anymore by the referees".

Lo Monaco responded, "A trick? I wouldn't say so. It's up to the referee to decide if it should be penalized, otherwise I don't see where the problem is....Good taste is relative."