Common Sense prevails Hazard to 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.
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 9th 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.
Josh Weale
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