In a bid to halt the spread of swine flu, the mayor of a French town banned spitting for all, including footballers
In a bid to halt the spread of swine flu, the mayor of a French town banned spitting for all, including footballersChristophe Rouillon, mayor of the town of Coulaines, near Le Mans in northern France, declared on Tuesday, "On this day, I issue a decree that henceforth in my district spitting on a public thoroughfare will be banned."
Much to the surprise of the football fans in the town, Rouillon went beyond the ban on public expectoration by his own constituents, and wrote a letter to Michel Platini, the French head of European football's governing body UEFA, demanding that players set a better example.
"One spitting incident should be punished with a yellow card, and repeat offenders should be shown a red card," he suggested.
France had considered itself spared from the worst of the A(H1N1) flu pandemic until this week, when an outbreak in French Polynesia and a change in the method of counting cases put the issue back on the front page.
