Showing Stupidity the Red Card

Last night, Chelsea's Eden Hazard attempted to retrieve a football from a ball boy at Swansea's Liberty Stadium. After it appeared that the boy had smothered the ball, Hazard kicked the boy in the side. Unfortunately for Swansea, who reached their first ever cup final, much of the attention after the match was put on the incident between Hazard and the ball boy. The Sun reported that Hazard had left the boy "rolling on the floor in agony", The Irish Times' headline mentioned the Hazard incident but not anything about Swansea, while The Guardian claimed that the incident "overshadowed the Welsh club's eye-catching achievement in reaching a first major cup final at the European champions' expense." By this morning, The Telegraph was reporting that the Police had interviewed the 17 year-old ball boy, and his father, and decided that no criminal action would be taken against Hazard. Had the world gone mad or were the headlines justified? More importantly, was the red-card justified and was it fair that there was talk of increasing Hazard's ban?

Well firstly, it's pertinent to point out that the ball boy should not have done what he did. He covered the ball in its entirety with ten minutes to go in the semi-final of a cup competition. Former Chelsea player Pat Nevin, speaking to the BBC, dismissed calls for a lengthy ban for Hazard. He went as far, in fact, to call for the red card to be rescinded and the ball boy not to be allowed to help out again. I'll get to his former point later on, but his latter point holds sway. The job of the ball boy is to retrieve the ball, within a reasonable amount of time, and to give it straight back to a player from the team who is set to re-start the game. Whatever about taking your time getting the ball, collecting the ball and diving on it is completely wrong. A Guardian Poll showed that more than fifty percent of its sports readers wanted Hazard to receive no ban at all. This view was backed up on Twitter by footballers Michael Owen and Rio Ferdinand, amongst others. Cases of ball boy's being fired are not uncommon, and the same fate should await this lad.

Having said that however, Nevin's other idea, that Hazard should have his red card rescinded, is also entirely incorrect. Although the player's frustrations are understandable, the idea that he should be allowed to kick a ball boy and get away with it is ridiculous. Nevin claims that if it had been the other way around, with a Chelsea ball boy getting kicked, he would have the exact same view. This is highly doubtful, and it seems that the former player's glasses have something of a west London blue tint to them.

There are other examples of players interacting with fans, where the player in question has ended up receiving punishment. El Hadji Diouf, playing for Liverpool, spat at a Celtic supporter after allegedly being slapped in the head. He was fined two weeks' wages, and banned for two matches for the incident which had been missed by the referee at the time. Diouf offered an apology, as Hazard did last night, but this still did not mean he avoided punishment.
An even more famous example involved Manchester United's Eric Cantona kung-fu kicking a Crystal Palace fan who had taunted him following his sending off. Cantona was rightly given a four-month bad and a £20,000 fine.

Now, while there are obvious differences between what Cantona and Diouf did and what Hazard did, the principle of the situation is still the same. Professional footballers are paid to entertain the public, not to attack them! Hazard failed to act in a professional manner. The fact that Chelsea were about to relinquish their last real chance of success this season is beside the point.  "Anything is permissible if you're a bit pissed off" is not the message the Football Association should aim to send out. I hope the FA sees sense and does not expunge the red card, and its accompanying suspension.

Ultimately then, were the papers correct to focus on the Hazard issue? Well, it was understandable, even if it was harsh on Swansea and their highly commendable achievement of a first final placing. Hazard deserves to face a ban for his red card, which was justified. Three games should suffice, especially when it is put in the context of other scuffles of a similar nature (namely Diouf). With the boy and the player having apologised over the incident, hopefully it can all be laid to rest.