We talk a lot about how we’ll knew when soccer has finally “made it” in America. I think I’ve finally identified the event that will once and for all settle the debate: America will fully and truly be a soccer nation when people go outside to have sex while the national team is playing because they know everyone else will be indoors watching the game. That’s what an Italian couple did in 2006, and while they were convicted of obscene acts anyway, you have to admire the ingenuity.

The couple just had their latest appeal at Italy’s highest appellate court denied. I call bullspit. If two people have sex on the public green and no one is there to see it (because they’re all inside watching Italy beat Ukraine 3-0 in a World Cup quarterfinal), did they offend anyone?

The couple, then a 60-year-old man and a 40-year-old woman, were caught having sex outside in southern Italy in 2006 while the national soccer team was playing in the World Cup soccer quarterfinals in Germany.

Their defence at a previous trial was that they had timed their tryst under the stars so they would not offend anyone, because everyone else would be watching the game on television.

How romantic. They did miss a screamer from Zambrotta and two goals from Luca Toni, but it’s tough to blame them. Amorous relations, under the stars, with nary a soul to complain. Of course, someone did complain.

You have to admire the persistence of these two. To be still appealing the conviction six years later, on really shaky grounds, is…something.

Source: The Province