Righteous Robbie reputation tarnished

ROBBIE FOWLER found out that what FlFA giveth, UEFA taketh away when he was fined £900 by the European governing body for displaying a "political" t-shirt, barely 24 hours after receiving a fax from FlFA's general secretary Sepp Blatter congratulating him on his sportsmanship in trying to turn down a penalty.

Undeterred by UEFA'S reprimand, Fowler fuelled his newfound Righteous Robbie reputation yesterday revealing that he had previously convinced a referee not to give a penalty in his favour.

"I did it at Chelsea when I went one-on-one with the keeper and went past him and down," said Fowler. "I got up and walked away, I didn't try to claim it and the refs just given a goal kick. And we got beat in that game."

However he insists that he was trying to score from the penalty hem didn't want on Monday against Arsenal at Highbury. "As a goalscorer it's part of my job to take it and I wanted to score it," said Fowler. "I tried to score. I never missed on purpose. It just happened, it was a bad penalty."

His sainthood might have been put in a different light had Jason McAteer not followed up to score the rebound for Liverpool and secure a 2-1 win.

Fowler, who has been an occasional victim of lewd tabloid scrutiny, was certainly enjoying the unfamiliar fresh air of the moral high ground. "I've never been a bad lad," said Fowler. "It's just that everything you do gets scrutinised. But I've been getting picked on because I've done one or two silly things and people think you're going to carry on like that all the time, which I'm not."

Fowler is refusing to comment further on the t-shirt incident, in which he wore a shirt under his top with a slogan supporting striking Merseyside dockers and displayed it after scoring a goal in the European Cup Winners' Cup match against SK Brann.

UEFA, though, are most upset, having specifically warned clubs about the display of political messages. They reprimanded the Swiss FA when Swiss players presented a banner with a political message during the national anthems before the Euro `96 qualifying match between Sweden and Switzerland in 1995.

Fowler was not alone in feeling the force of UEFA'S disciplinary committee. Manchester United were fined £2,600 for missiles thrown at their Champions' League match with Porto earlier this month, while Porto were fined just over £3,000 for "improper conduct of the team."

The FA were also hit by a fine of around £2,200 for crowd disturbances at England's under-21 match with Italy.

Meanwhile, ITV has acquired the live rights to Liverpool's European Cup Winners' Cup semifinal against Paris St Germain. The first leg will be shown on April 10th, the day after ITV. screens Manchester United's UEFA Champions League semifinal against Borussia Dortmund.