http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/24399102 After seeing that Gary Madine is going to rejoin Sheffield Wednesday tomorrow after being in Prison for 5 months of his 18 month sentence. How would you feel if Charlton signed someone who had been in prison? Yes Madine isn't like Lee Hughes where he has killed someone, BUT he did have 2 unprovoked assaults of people in Sheffield clubs including breaking a Wednesday fan's jaw. But yeah, how would you feel if Charlton did it, looking on Owl's talk they are very happy he's going to be signed up again.
In the case of Lee Hughes - he didn't deserve to come back to football and earn what he earned. Madine obviously has anger issues. If he has the right help to help him curb this and he acknowledges what he's done, whilst in some quarters it might not be fair, he deserves another chance.
I reckon if someone has served their sentence then they should be free to resume their normal life. If the sentencing is too lenient, that is a matter for Parliament and the judicial system and, ulimately, the electorate. It is not up to football clubs to do their jobs for them. Obviously the clubs and fans must not treat the player as some sort of retuning "anti-hero" but I don't see much of that going on. Some may say football is different because footballers are role models for youngsters. All I can say is, they shouldn't be. I might teach my children to respect a footballer's hard work and self-discipline to rise in his profession, but there is no reason to take him as a model in other respects any more than a pop or film star.
You could say Sordell has already committed plenty of crimes under fraud, for impersonating a footballer !
Role models are players like Billy Wright, Tom Finney, or any member of the 1966 World Cup winning team. Anyone who sees a post Sky TV money footballer as a "role model" has had a lobotomy.
I like David Beckham, family man, 100% committed to his country, yeah money took him after he left United but who isn't affected by that. He is a top bloke too, so Beckham for me is a role model, I do get your point though, no many modern players you could say at role models. Maybe Lampard? Has something stupid like 11A* at GCSE And some A-levels, very very rarely hear a bad word about him.
What Eddie said... after all, if the aforementioned were bricklayers or plasterers nobody would bat an eyelid at them returning to their profession. However, I would not be able to support any player playing for my Charlton who had killed someone through recklessness.
I would hope that in that case he would be in prison long enough to curtail his career. Unless he was very young at the time and had turned his life around since, in which case I might cut him some slack. Someone who is not otherwise a criminal and who kills through driving under the influence, or through some reckless practical joke, for example, should be in prison for at least ten years. I don't mean in some hellhole which will result in making him cynical and hardened criminal or mentally disturbed, but somewhere where he can do useful job in a controlled environment. That would not include playing professional football.
Can't really agree with a word of that, eddie. Too wishy-washy for my liking. If someone dies or is seriously injured as a result of reckless behaviour, he/she will never have the chance to live life to its fullest, so why should the instigator of the crime be able to resume a normal existence? And I can't abide hearing about reformed characters and the burden that criminals must shoulder for the rest of their days. Manslaughter sentencing is the biggest joke of all. That nasty **** who punched and killed a decent man in Bournemouth should be put to death, forthwith. Having said that, if someone caused my child's death, I would want them released without delay so that I could administer my own form of justice. Rant over.
LOL! Volly, you did one on another thread about Elton Johns bedroom which also had me in fits! Keep em coming!
The victim from Bournemouth also had aspergers ffs.... the guy who did it should be put away for life NOT 4 years reduced to 2!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The killer probably recognised a victim who couldn't fight back. On saturday my daughter was returning from Manchester when the man in the next seat to her was badly beaten up just for being gay. She guessed the assailant's age as being about 14, and he was being egged on by his mother.
