Nouma slapped with seven-month ban for below the belt gesture

Controversial French striker Pascal Nouma picked up a seven-month ban from Turkey's football authorities for causing a furore by making an obscene gesture in a league game while playing for Besiktas - a gesture which had already led to his sacking.

Nouma caused a storm when he celebrated scoring a goal against Fenerbahce in a first division match on April 20 by putting his hand down his shorts and grabbing his testicles.

Besiktas president Serdar Bilgili told reporters that the player's behaviour "was absolutely not in keeping with the habits and customs in Turkey" and the player was promptly shown the door despite making an apology.

"Nouma has gone down in history," trumpeted daily Milliyet, after Nouma was handed the toughest ever sanction handed down by the disciplinary committee of the Turkish Football Federation.

"I didn't deserve such a punishment - have I killed someone?" Nouma asked, quoted by the Sabah daily.

But the burly forward, formerly of French side Lens, had been in trouble before - two years ago he was accused of hitting a journalist at a night club.

The Vatan daily explained he was thrown out for "behaviour which seriously contravened the spirit of sporting fair play."

Nouma was signed up by league leaders Besiktas at the start of the season but the relationship has failed to blossom. He has seldom played and picked up two suspensions for a pair of red cards.