Just when you thought you'd seen everything in football, along comes an incident that leaves you utterly speechless. Speechless at the event, but more so at the stream of commentary that followed.
Eden Hazard, the Chelsea midfield play maker and Belgium international, went to retrieve the ball during his teams dismal League Cup semi-final performance away to Swansea City on Wednesday. As he did so, a Swansea ball boy intervened and, after a little nudge from Hazard, fell on top of the ball thus denying the quick retrieval that Hazard was hoping for.
As he lay on the ball, Hazard tried to kick the ball from beneath him and, in doing so, kicked the ball boy in the ribs. This sparked immediate debate as Ashley Williams, the Swansea captain, confronted Hazard who was swiftly removed from the developing melee by his teammates. After things had calmed down and following deliberation with his match officials, Chris Foy, the referee, decided to show Hazard a red card. What followed was absolute delirium.
Firstly it is worth pointing out that the ball boy, who is 17 years of age, could have retrieved the ball a lot quicker than he did. In actual fact, he let the ball run past him before stepping across Hazard's path to obtain the ball. The chances are quite high that the ball boys of Swansea were encouraged to take their time in returning the match ball, in an attempt to waste time. This is something that has been happening in football for decades and was confirmed by former Chelsea midfielder, Craig Burley, on TalkSport on Thursday.
Some have suggested that Hazard's actions were akin to the infamous incident involving Eric Cantona assaulting a Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park in 1995. The truth is, it was nowhere near as bad. But it was wholly irresponsible.
Added into the mix of this whole debate is the fact that Hazard plays for Cheslea, who have an unerring consistency to attract negative media attention. The official Chelsea Twitter feed reacted to the incident within minutes, tweeting "Has football gone mad? Hazard is sent off for kicking the ball under a ball boy attempting to smother the ball rather than return it", which was later removed. It was an incredibly ill-advised tweet from a club which does little to endear the neutral fans. Added to this is the wait for a Chelsea statement that suggests what Hazard did was wrong. So far, all that has been communicated is that he and the ball boy have apologised to each other.
The commentary and debate that erupted in the aftermath of the incident was typically insidious on Twitter but, most alarming, were the comments made by Alan Smith, commentating live for Sky Sports, and John Salako, providing updates in the Sky Sports News studio. Without the benefit of hindsight, Smith was dumbfounded by the decision of Foy to dismiss Hazard but Salako, when questioned by Sky Sports News presenter, David Garrido, as to how he would react if the ball boy was his son, quipped: "I'd shake his hand and say 'you've won us the game there, well done'...Hazard has pinched him at best."
Such was the surprise and forthright nature of Salako's comments that Garrido posed more questions. Salako, although entitled to his opinion, was guilty of completely misreading the situation.
Having been shown a straight red card, Hazard will get a minimum three game suspension which could increase depending on how The Football Association view it. What cannot be ignored, however, is that these are professional footballers and, with that, they are expected to act professionally. Forget the ball boys age, it is only relevant for those wishing to gloss over misdemeanours.
As Burley pointed out, and what football fans have known for a long time, ball boys deliberately slowing down the speed at which the ball is returned is something that has been happening for an awful long time.
Whilst you can understand Hazard's frustration at these tactics, he must be made aware that behaviour like that is completely unacceptable. You get the feeling his employers may not be the ones to tell him this.
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