The roll of paper that cost St. Pauli $85,000

Back in December, we brought you footage of a dimwitted St. Pauli fan throwing a roll of paper from a cash register roll onto the pitch during a match with Eintracht Frankfurt. Getting hit by a piece of paper may not seem like a big deal particularly in Germany where throwing stuff on the pitch appears to be customary but it has had great repercussions for the club.

A sports court at the German Football federation (DFB) has ruled that St. Pauli must play their tie with Karlsruher SC on March 12th without 5,800 fans in the standing areas of their Millerntor-Stadion. The lower capacity will effectively cost them 63,000 ($85,000) in lost ticket sales no small amount for a 2. Bundesliga side. German news site speigel.de explains how the fan who caused this financial world of pain cried like a little girl in court:

At the trial on Monday in Frankfurt am Main, the 20-year-old supporter made a personal appearance as a witness and described his actions in part, while sobbing.

The blubbering fan had already apologized to Eintracht Frankfurt's dramatically flopping midfielder Pirmin Schwegler in person and in writing, but the DFB still decided to throw the book at Germany's least boring club. The Hamburg-based side could have come off much worse too: the chief DFB prosecutor had actually asked for all 13,000 regular standing fans to be excluded, presumably because people who are sitting down cannot throw things.

The fine seems pretty harsh. And frankly, if I ran the DFB, any club that makes it's entrance to AC/DC would be completely beyond reproach...