Dad's don't press charges, the Police and CPS do. All it needs is a witness, and I think there may be one or two?
Hazard kicked a ball boy because he was frustrated that, despite costing more than the entire Swansea team, he couldn't influence the outcome of the two games at all. With all its talents, the Chelsea team scored no goals. If Chelsea fans want to forgive him and claim is behaviour is acceptable, that's fine. Their team is out of the CL, out of the League Cup and has no chance of winning the PL. If Hazard is a hero, they are easily pleased. I doubt their owner will be though. Mind you, this is the club of John Terry and Ashley Cole and which accused Clattenburg of racism without evidence so perhaps they might have some difficulty perceiving what's right or wrong and what it takes to be a hero rather than a villain.
Our "ball" boys are much more subtle [video=youtube;-gUgPkJ76x8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gUgPkJ76x8[/video] With the Hazard one, it's got to be fairly simple. It's violent conduct and a 3 game ban, you get the same for leaning your head into another player these days so I don't think there's much debate about whether kicking someone on the ground will get you the same. As for the ballboy, well it highlights a potential problem with ball boys everywhere that could do the same to waste time. I'm sure most ballboys will be under strict instructions not to do that but they need to fine Swansea as a detterent.
That's a great clip YV - had forgotten about it. It's the reaction of the oppo that gets me - he wants to make something of it but the ballboy has already turned and walked away. Priceless!!
Get off your high horse [video=youtube;WRDzXV7IgiI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRDzXV7IgiI[/video] [video=youtube;p_st29mlQwU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_st29mlQwU[/video] [video=youtube;ub842qIfVZQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ub842qIfVZQ[/video] please log in to view this image
He was an idiot and deserves to be reprimanded but media reaction is way OTT, clear he kicked the ball. In this ideal world we live in, if you are a foreign 21 year old who has not long been in the country, adapting to a different culture chasing a semi final in a major competition you should keep your cool. Hazard should have left it to the referee, but he is a clear victim of media sensationalism.
Lets concentrate on the angles that actually show whether he kicked the ballboy. please log in to view this image As I said, it's violent conduct, simple as. The FA doesn't punish people for "being a bit of a twat" they can only take action in accordance with their own rules and precedent and if Gervinho slapping Barton was a 3 match ban for violent conduct so is kicking a ballboy, whether he felt he could get contact on the ball or not. Oh behave! "Adapting to a different culture" what's that got to do with what he did? Do you seriously think he'd have got away with it in France? The media reaction has nothing to do with him being foreign and far more to do with it being an extraordinary incident and it doesn't help when Chelsea fans(and others) take the "man on the street" attitude and stick up for him saying if anything he should have given the player a bigger boot. It creates some kind of debate when there shouldn't be one. Hazard will surely get a small ban and hopefully Swansea will be fined for their ballboy acting like a twat. I'm not particularly outraged at Hazard, it's understandable he was frustrated but he did something stupid and will be punished for it as everyone else would have. I'm over the whole thing to be honest, if you hadn't disagreed with me on here I doubt I'd have mentioned it again.
Don't really see what this has got to do with anything, he's Belgian, stereotypically one of the most placid countries on the planet. I agree about the media sensationalism though. I'm already bored of the incident and ready to move on. But, much like the various incidents of racism (or alleged racism) in the last few years, I can guarantee the papers will be going on about this for weeks, well after everyone has stopped caring. It infuriates me how we let little non-footballing incidents like this cast a shadow over the sport.
If someone pisses me off on the street i wouldn't (and nor am i allowed) to kick them. If i did i would fully expect a call from the police. Being foreign is irrelevant. I've been to France/Belgium (the countries where he has spent significant time i'm guessing), giving people a good ol' rib kick is not common practice over there. 21 is also an age where you are considered an adult. Granted i am no doubt more intelligent than Hazard but i learnt at a very young age that kicking people was wrong, he should have grasped it by the age of 21 ffs.
That's not the correct angle. When assessing an incident you have to look at all the available angles. You can't just pick the one that looks the most incriminating just because it suits your agenda. It's quite clear if you assess all available angles and the reaction of the Swansea GK, Hazard did in fact kick the ball. Maybe I've watched too many Harry Potter films but I've never heard of a ball magically appearing from beneath someone's midriff unless they have made contact with the ball. As for cultural difference, there is no way Hazard's actions would have been sensationalised as much if he was still in a proper country like France. Cultural difference does matter, because the PC nonsense is out of control in this country. Hazard quite clearly in the wrong, should have left the situation to the referee, he should have realised it was impractical to retrieve the ball from that position without some kind of reaction from the boy but nobody has died. The boy is as much at fault if not moreso. All that needs to happen is for Hazard and the boy to apologise, shake hands, exchange autographs and behave like grown men they are both supposed to be. Not be fannying around like bickering Suburban housewives and creating something out of nothing This is the problem we have in society, we push and push people to the absolute limit and when they eventually react, the so called "victims" want to cry wolf. When ballboys can get players sent off and be rolling around as if they've been shot by a .50 cal sniper the sport is truly dead. R.I.P Association Football and common sense/rationality
its not about whether he kicks the ball or not, its about whether he also kicks the ballboy. The ballboy overreacts, that is clear, but he DID get kicked. That is the only fact that really matters here. Hazard kicked a ballboy, done.
Any links to show how players regularly go UFC on ball boys in Belgium or France would help your argument...
You can't possibly know that. Only three people are in the position to judge. Tremmel, Hazard and the ballboy. Fundamentally comes down to what you want to see rather than what actually happened. Stevie G DJ incident was the exact same.
Yes in the street if someone pissed you off Spurm, you couldn't do anything....but if you could get away with it you would. Lets forget this analogy because fact of matter is you could do a lot worse on the street and get away with it, such is the law in this country. Another street way to look at it is if there's a local Asbo candidate who frequently throws an empty can of Steller at you window on a weekly basis. Then one day someone comes and gives him a rib tickler. You would be glad he got what he deserved. This was not any ballboy this seems to be some spoilt little arsehole who was wumming via Twatter that he intended to be an idiot during the game and he was. I don't let the law think for me in absolutely everything...we do have a brain aswell. and this is one of them situations. If only Hazard had put his laces through the lad's arsehole.
You're not reading at what I'm saying. What I'm saying is that he kicked the ballboy and was always likely to by doing that. Whether he gets the ball or not is unimportant, what is important is whether he knew he was also going to be kicking the ballboy in doing so which is pretty clear he did. The amount of contact made isn't of great concern, as I said with the Gervinho example and players leaning their head in. It's not about doing real damage for violent conduct and it's not about the reaction of the person on the receiving end, whether you agree with that or not there are countless examples of it before that you wouldn't have batted an eyelid over. I can't believe you're having a go at the media for sensationalising it and then finishing your post with "RIP Association Football", surely you can see that kind of reaction is as OTT as anything else you read.
