Julian Alsop may well be remembered for sending shock waves through the footballing world in the Autumn of 2004. I hear you ask was it his silky skills? Was it his cunning ability to outwit the opposition? Or was it his tireless performances which inspired many a youngster to put down their playstation control and take up the beautiful game? Unfortunately Alsop will not be remembered for any of the above but for an incident which has gone down in football history as “Bananagate”.

Julian Alsop at age 31 was playing for Oxford United in the Autumn of 2004 when he allegedly attempted to shove a banana up the rear end of a youth team player in a prank that went too far. It was reported that a play fight which had occurred on the training pitch had irked Alsop and in revenge he had grabbed the 16 year old youth, stripped him naked and whipped him with a towel. That not being enough of a punishment in Alsop’s eyes he then reportedly got another player to hold the lad down and then allegedly tried to ram a banana up his back side.

Now everyone knows that a football changing room can be full of jokers and high jinks are to be expected but this story shocked fans across the country as a prank that simply crossed over the line. The incident was not reported to the police at the time as according to the Sun the youth was afraid “it may affect his future at the club”. Despite the lack of police intervention manager Graham Rix (who by the way was a previous feature in our sex scandals anthology) didn’t escape an ear ache as the boy’s concerned parents demanded action be taken for what they regarded a serious assault on their son. An investigation was carried out and Alsop was duly sacked from the club following the incident. Three other Oxford youth team stars also were disciplined in the wake of the incident.

This story never seems to amaze fans as many questions remain unanswered such as where did the banana come from? Who fetched the banana? Why did no-one intervene? The incident is still clouded in an air of mystery as thankfully the youth’s name was never revealed thereby saving him from a life full of taunts from the terraces. You can just hear the away fans at Oxford now “Bend over for the half time show, bend over for the half time show, etc, etc” following by a fabulous rendition of “Does he take up the arse?”. Thank the Lord for small mercies son!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 9th, 2007 at 2:38 pm and is filed under General Football Articles. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.