The long-maned Italian superstar has so far preferred to have team lawyers speak for him about the incident, which happened during Italy's opening match against Denmark.

"He told me: 'I, Francesco Totti, do not know the Francesco Totti seen in that video. That was another personality," said lawyer Giulia Bongiorno.

Danish TV apparently had one camera trained on Totti the entire match, said his lawyer. In the 50th minute of the hard-fought game, which ended in a scoreless draw on Tuesday, Totti was seen spitting in the face of Danish midfielder Christian Poulson.

The Danish team filed a formal complaint with UEFA, European soccer's governing body. On Thursday, UEFA banned Totti for the next two matches against Sweden and Bulgaria as well as the quarterfinal match -- should Italy advance -- citing "gross unsporting conduct."

"It was humiliating for me," Poulsen told Italian television. "These are things that should not happen on a soccer pitch."

Punishment wasn't strong enough

The rest of European football community, Italy included, agreed.

"He's got a huge responsibility to youngsters -- the whole world is watching," former England coach Terry Venables told ITV. "Personally, I don' think (the punishment) was strong enough."

Italian papers slammed Totti, one of the country's most beloved players, for his conduct.

"Totti's madness" read the headline in Las Gazzetta dello Sport.

"The most popular 'Azzurri' player, the national team and the whole of Italian soccer suffer incalculable damage," the paper continued in a front-page editorial, according to AP.

Who will replace him?

The ban means some serious juggling for Italian head coach Giovani Trappatoni, who had built up his offense around AS Roma's midfield star. Reports have Totti's Roma teammate Antonia Cassano playing alongside offensive stars Christian Vieri and Alessandro del Piero in the Friday matchup against Sweden at Porto's Dragao stadium.

The Swedes are coming off of an impressive 5-0 thrashing of Bulgaria, but kept their perspective ahead of the game against one of Europe's soccer powerhouses.

"If you ask Italy about Swedish players, they will mention four or five players. If you ask Sweden about Italian players, they will list 33 players," said Sweden co-trainer Tommy Soderberg. "It's one of the best teams today and remains one of the favorites."

The Italian team remained optimistic about advancing further in the tournament.

Midfielder Andrea Prilo said Totti "knows what he did and we'll be waiting for him in the semifinals."