Tofting gets jail term

Tofting has retired from international football

Bolton's Danish midfielder Stig Tofting was given a four-month jail sentence on Tuesday for assault following a fight in a Copenhagen restaurant in June.

The 33-year-old Danish international was found guilty of aggravated assault by the City Court in Copenhagen, a penalty that carries a maximum term of 18 months.

  Stig Tofting factfile

Born: 14 August 1969, Aarhus

Clubs: Aarhus, Hamburg, Duisburg, Bolton

Int'l caps: 41

15 October 2002: Jailed for four months

Tofting was found guilty of striking the owner of Cafe Ketchup on the head and was also convicted of hitting one of the restaurant's chefs on the jaw.

The incident happened during a welcome home party for the squad just six days after Denmark's defeat by England at the World Cup.

He described the sentence as heavy and said he wanted "time to reflect" before deciding whether or not to lodge an appeal.

Tofting will not begin the jail term immediately and has 14 days to appeal but only against the severity of the sentence, because he pleaded guilty to a lesser offence.

The relatively light sentence came after the judge in the Copenhagen court reduced the charges against Tofting to a lighter degree of assault, reduced from serious assault as originally sought by prosecutors.

Prosecutors decided to go ahead with charges against Tofting despite the fact that two of the victims accepted apologies from the player.

Player profile: Stig Tofting

A Bolton club statement read: "We have no comment to make until we have dicussed the matter with our legal representatives".

However Tofting's agent, Karsten Aabrink, said after the verdict that Bolton would be standing by the player and that he would return to the club straight away.

"He's on his way back to England," Aabrink revealed.

"Bolton have supported Stig, they are standing by their man and we're pleased by that.

"He will be training again on Wednesday and I expect him to play on Sunday (against Tottenham)."

Tofting was jailed for 20 days in 1999 after hitting the owner of a cafe in the Danish city Aarhus.

Sign up to receive daily e-mail club news