Common Sense prevails Hazard to only serve 3 match ban

Amidst all the deadline day transfer madness and expectations there was a bit of news that filtered through that shows that English Football hasn't gone completely mad.

Eden Hazard was sent off in unforgettable circumstances in the capital one cup semi-final against Swansea at the Liberty Stadium for kicking a ball boy who tried to prevent him getting the ball. As most people already know the incident was crazy, 17 year old ball boy and son of one of Swansea’s board members worth £42 million, Charlie Morgan lay on the ball to try to stop Hazard getting the ball in doing so wasting time. Hazard tried to kick the ball from underneath Morgan and in doing so caught the ballboy in the side with his kick. This left the ball boy looking like he was in a lot more pain than you’d expect and also Hazard with a red card.

Immediate discussions rumoured a police charge for Hazard and a lengthy ban from the game, thankfully the news came that there would be no police charges and both parties had apologised to each other.

Despite there being no police interaction the FA still wanted to investigate the incident to decide whether Hazard deserved a lengthier punishment than the compulsory three match ban for violent conduct.

               

Photo courtesy of Ben Sutherland -
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bensutherland/8066832174/ 

The news was broke yesterday though that even with the FA originally claiming the three match ban was ‘clearly insufficient’ Chelsea have successfully managed to put forward a case to an independent panel and argue that the three games is punishment enough.

Not only is this good for Chelsea as they will have their star Belgian winger back on the 9^th February to face Wigan but it’s also good for the game. The last thing anyone involved in this incident needed was for the affair to be continuously dragged on for no good reason other than to make a point.

Hazard’s actions were wrong but so too were those of the ball boy, and I think the fact that both apologies were accepted showed that everyone involved was prepared to forget it and move on.

It appeared momentarily that the FA were not prepared to do the same but the sentencing of a three match ban remaining just at that is a victory for common sense in modern day football.
 

Football gone mad, Hazards of being a ball boy

So last night we saw Swansea city reach their first ever major cup final after beating Chelsea 2-0 over the two legs they will now go on to face Bradford City at Wembley in February. However the achievement of these two teams is not what the football world is talking about, last nights game saw one of the most remarkable incidents I have ever seen in football.

Chelsea's Eden Hazard was sent off in the match for kicking a ball boy off the field of play, sounds bad doesn't it?  But when it is written in black and white like that it does sound a lot worse, but I think there's a bit more to this and the whole incident has become a bit of a storm in a tea cup.

First of all I'm not condoning what Hazard did no player should ever be kicking any where near a ball boy and in doing so he deserved his red card, but talk of a lengthy ban and initially even police investigations is ludicrous.

The situation here is that with ten minutes to go in a cup semi-final and with Chelsea still needing two goals,when Hazard has gone to pick the ball up to get on with the game as quickly as possible, the ball boy has interfered and tried to stop Hazard getting the ball even at one point lying on it.

This is a high pressure situation and people do stupid things in the heat of the moment, Eden Hazard kicking through the ball boy to try and retrieve the ball was one of them, but he would never of needed to do that if the ball boy hadn't initially decided he was going to do something stupid by trying to waste time.

If the ball boy had of done his job properly and given the ball back as soon as possible or even left it for Hazard to retrieve we would not be talking about this crazy situation. Both player and ball boy are in the wrong here and this whole fiasco has distracted from what is a great victory for Swansea.

The scenes that followed afterwards with the ball boy rolling around looking like he was about to take his last breath were bizarre and it just highlights the responsibilities of these players on the pitch. The ball boys play acting is something we see all too often by players on the pitch and you can't deny that the ball boy probably played up to the fact Hazard kicked him by making it look a lot worse. This is something he may have seen on the pitch most weekends and has decided to emulate to see what happens I'm not saying he wasn't hurt by the kick maybe he was but it can't have been as painful as he made it look.

I'm glad that both player and ball boy apologised to each other and both apologies have been accepted. Now let that be the end of it give Hazard his compulsory one match ban and get on with it, but in this crazy world of football everyone knows that there probably won't be a quick resolution to this and Hazard could be facing more serious repercussions.

Now I just want to take a minute to look at something that happened in 1995 Man United's most enigmatic of strikers Eric Cantona lashed out at a Crystal palace fan at Selhurst park after being sent off and lunged at him with a crazy kung-fu style kick. For this Cantona recieved an 8 month ban from football and 120 hours community service, now that was violent conduct, that was insane and Cantona deserved everything he got.

The end of last season QPR's Joey Barton picked up a lengthy ban for violent conduct after being sent off against Man City for catching Carlos Tevez with a swinging arm, that was the initial offence he got his lengthy ban for what happened next, on the way off the pitch he attacked Man City's Sergio Aguero, tried to headbutt Vincent Kompany and also tried to fight Mario Balotelli. That was violent conduct and Barton deserved the fine and the 12 match ban he received because again that was insane.

The reason for Hazard's red card was also violent conduct but what Hazard did was no where near the scale of what Cantona or Barton did so talks of a lengthy ban for the Belgian and an FA investigation is frankly mad. For the sake of football and in the name of sensible judgement just get on with it give him a one match ban maybe a fine and don't drag the matter out any more than it needs to be.

Hazard was wrong for kicking through the ball boy, the ball boy was wrong for trying to time waste and lying on the ball, both players have said sorry, both apologies have been accepted and that should be it let that be the end of it and get on with what everyone wants to see the actual football.

Congratulations to Swansea city on what is a tremendous victory, they can go forward to Wembley now to face Bradford on what should be one of the greatest days in the club's 101 year history, that is what everyone should be talking about not a stupid incident between a player and a ball boy.