This.

The real tragedy is that it diverts attention away from the fact that Chelski lost!

I would suggest that, before demonising a footballer, certain people need to check the facts...

Ball boys are there to give the ball back, not lie down on it, thus stopping the game.

The "boy" was in fact 17 years old and, as has already been mentioned, tweeted something about time wasting before the game.

My opinions... There was no excuse for kicking the ball from under the ball boy, (was there contact? I don't know, as I couldn't make it out). The player should have called the ref over and formally complained. the thing is that you've got ten or so minutes left in a cup match and you're two nil down, sometimes what you should do and what you actually do aren't always the same thing...

Let's hope that some sort of action is also taken against the ball boy. Does he get paid for this? I don't know but if he does I hope he gets his wages docked, and also that he is never allowed to take part in a game again.

None of this is sufficient justification for kicking someone lieing on the floor. The correct thing to do, as you say, would have been to bring this to the attention of the referee, who would have added time on at the end of the game to compensate for it.


I tell you what, you lie on a ball and I'll try to kick it out from under you without making contact with you. I think I might find it quite hard to do. And it didn't look like Hazard was making any kind of effort to avoid kicking the ballboy (you can't really call him kid..). Looked much more to me like he was trying to kick him to convince him to move and the ball just happened to be in proximity.


He's a bloody professional, or at least he's supposed to be. Not losing his composure and focus in those circumstances is a requirement of his job. If he's going to kick someone off the pitch he probably stands a decent chance of kicking someone on the pitch, which would equally have got him sent off.


Yeah, because it's all his fault, right?


No, they don't get paid. And I know, the affrontery of him, lieing there and getting kicked.

The ballboy is patently a dick. But the allowable reaction to dicks is not to kick them while they're lieing on the floor. The idea that Hazard is somehow the victim in this is reprehensible.

Even being a complete twat was not justification for the assault.

would you like to reconsider your stance?

I do remember hearing a comment along the lines of "Jeremy Clarkson's only redeeming feature is that he once punched Piers Morgan". I don't know if it's true, but I kind of hope so.

On Concorde's last flight IIRC. Moron had been trying to get whatever he could on Clarkson in the preceding months, eventually printing a photo of him kissing a woman Clarkson claimed was a goodbye kiss. Whether he was cheating or not, Clarkson hit him, with water also being thrown IIRC.

Clarkson was recently snapped shopping with that injunction girl in Italy or somewhere, so God knows if Moron was right at the time...

Edit - injunction was his first wife, this was TG tour girl.

Further edit - I'd accidentally merged two stories

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2004/ma ... publishing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfzu2ObrYzc

So incredibly tempting but he is the Americans problem now.

Football?
Attracting twats?
Now there's a turn up for the books.