From Reuters: “Soccer-mad criminals have been turning themselves in to British police stations in the hope of completing a short jail sentence in time to watch the World Cup, British newspapers reported on Friday.

In ‘Operation Red Card’, police in Hertfordshire, north of London, sent a simple message to defendants who have been failing to turn up in court: surrender now or spend the World Cup in a police cell with no television, according to the Evening Standard newspaper.”

‘One man even turned up to court with his bag packed, expecting a short spell in prison,’ it quoted Hertfordshire’s Sergeant Nigel Eastaugh as saying.

‘No doubt he wanted to get his sentence over and done with to make sure he would be free again in time for the World Cup,’ he added.

27 people have turned themselves in.

Soccer dorks.

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