A Polish football fan was so devastated when Russia scored against Poland at Tuesday’s Euro 2012 match that he threw his television set out his third-storey window, police said Wednesday.
They took the man into custody, prompting him to miss the second half of the game, when Poland scored an equaliser, making the final score a 1-1 draw.
The tie kept alive Poland’s hopes to make it to the quarter-finals of the 16-nation, quadrennial Euro 2012 football championships co-hosted by Poland and Ukraine.
“When Russia scored the first goal, the man was so overcome by emotion that he took his old television and simply chucked it out the window,” Tomasz Czerniak, spokesman for the municipal police, told AFP Wednesday.
“Fortunately no one was around, so the television just fell, exploded, but no one was injured,” he added.
Neighbours in the southern Polish city of Sosnowiec reported the 46-year-old to police, who showed up at half-time to find the man uncooperative and heavily drunk, Czerniak said.
Police were waiting for the fan to sober up Wednesday before questioning him. Czerniak said he will likely have to pay a 500-zloty (115 Euro, $144) fine.
Czerniak was not sure whether the man was even aware of the good news yet.
“He’ll find out soon enough and then he’ll realize he jumped the gun. He should have shown some patience,” he said.
“As they say, ‘anything can happen when the ball is in play,’” he added.
