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Eccentric Wels boss taped his mouth shut

(Bild: Bernhard Humer/SPG Wels)

Wels table tennis president Bernhard Humer caused the next stir after his ban expired and muzzled himself during the cup duel between the Messestadt team. But there are many eccentric leaders in the big world of sport.

"Because I'm always such a cheeky person, they once banned me from the hall," says table tennis Wels boss Bernhard Humer about his three-month ban imposed by the league committee. It expired on December 4 - but he promptly got carried away with another provocation.

Muzzle imposed
Humer muzzled himself and posed with his mouth taped shut during the Messestadt 2nd team's cup tie against Mauthausen (3:0). "As long as I still show emotion and don't sit around seemingly dead, the club doesn't need to worry," says Humer, making it clear that he will certainly not stop his eccentric behavior. And the president is not alone in this, as there are some curious and scandalous appearances in the big sporting world. An international and national selection:

• Jesus Gil y Gil was president of Atlético Madrid from 1987 to 2003, stood trial over 80 times and came to blows with another club boss in front of the cameras.

• Louis Nicollin was the long-serving and extremely eccentric president of HSC Montpellier; after winning their first league title, he gave himself a mohawk in the club's colors in 2012.

• Otto Jungbauer, the now deceased and legendary LASK president, had eight of the nine toilet cubicles at the current club facility removed in order to save water.

• Leo Dittrich, who was later imprisoned for embezzlement and forgery, is said to have turned off the floodlights during a derby against LASK when the score was 0:2.