Chelsea forward Eden Hazard was the central figure of the football world last week for all the wrong reasons, dismissed for “kicking out” at a “ball boy” during the League Cup game at Swansea City.
I thought the sending off was slightly harsh, though understandable. The resultant storm of abuse against the Belgian was ludicrous, and incomprehensible.
I am no fan of Chelsea Football Club. I thought it should have been deducted points for its outrageous claims against referee Mark Clattenburg, just the latest example of lack of class emerging from Stamford Bridge. When I heard about one of its players “attacking a ball boy” I was unsurprised. However, look at the video objectively and, frankly, Hazard does very little wrong at all.
The subsequent debate suggested Hazard was a role model and that kids across the nation would now feel it legitimate to “lash out” in such situations. To which I say – isn’t it?
One caller to BBC FiveLive suggested Hazard’s actions showed you have a right to fight back if someone steals your mobile phone in the street. Hazard did not fight back, he sought to wrestle the ball away. If someone steals your mobile in the street, do you not have the right to try to wrestle it back?
Others suggest Hazard “should have thought about what he was doing”. With ten minutes to go, his team was two down and needed to speed up the game to stay in the competition. What he was doing was trying to get the ball back from a “sideline official” (this was a 17-year-old, no “ball boy”) who was blatantly cheating (yes, cheating).
Pat Nevin came in for a storm of abuse for suggesting he would have done the same thing. Frankly, I commend his honesty. You know what, so would I…
I’m no fan of Chelsea (at all), and I thought their handling of the Clattenburg affair was poor, but they should not have been punished because the FA don’t have a well defined protocol for handling this sort of thing. I do think it might be better if allegations of rascism were made in confidence, and I’m surprised that there seems to be doesn’t seem to be any processes being put in place to fix this.
I think for the ballboy incident, both parties were in the wrong, but where do you draw the line at personally enforcing the rules? So whilst I think the red-card was probably fair (but harsh if that can be possible), the further disciplinary action against Hazard that seems to be in progress is completely unwarranted. Instead the FA should probably fine Swansea for employing half-wits that significantly interfered with a FA cup-tie and look into seeing how this can be avoided in the future.