Thursday 7 April 2011

Football: A Gentleman’s Game Played By Thugs

Parents watched in horror as an angry dad headbutted a player during a children’s football match.

Officials were forced to abandon the game after other spectators dashed on to the pitch to restrain the 40-year-old man.
This is the thing they call ‘the beautiful game’..?
Police arrested the dad at the scene before taking him into custody while the youngster was treated in Southampton General for a bleeding nose.
Well, he’s for a long stretch, I’ll be bound.
Today it emerged that the man had been given an official caution for common assault on the condition he pay the injured teenager £100.
Whuh..?

I’m not the only one to find this a trifle odd:
rich the stitch, says...

Ha, do you knwo what. I read this and, for a moment, thought a 40 yr old man had headbutted a 15yr old and got away with it. Must need my eyes testing.
Me too, Rich, me too!

Still, at least no-one’s popped up to say…

Oh. Wait.
john96, says...

i know what this man done wasn't what he should have done but imagine what his son is going through now, if i was his son and i looked on here i would upset because of some comments on here
Ahhh, just perfect.

His son wouldn’t be upset over his father’s violent and criminal behaviour (maybe he genuinely wouldn’t be, actually), but over the fact that other people are condemning it.

8 comments:

Captain Haddock said...

What a hard man .. What a hero .. What a role-model he must be ..

Quiet_Man said...

That's two instances of paying compo than facing jail I've read about recently. It has a worrying feel to it and just how far it could go.

Mike said...

football and footballers are simply yobs. true a kick around in the park or office workers playing five a side is a healthy, socaible activity but what parent in their right mind spends stupid amounts on football kit and encourages their children into idolising current football stars?
it is entierly possible to have a tough and rough team sport without the brevado. I am ashamed that our country holds the modern game of football in such high respects. Probably much like the vast majority of Pakistanis find their proffesional cricket players are nothing more than a bunch of fraudsters.
So yes, shame and an unbelievable level of disbelief that so many are sucked into lining the pockets of selfish thugs.

Rob said...

Mike: what a load of bollocks. Believe me, it is perfectly possible to play competitive football without middle-aged nutters headbutting 15 year olds.

Nutters are violent at football and in general life. You might as well argue that if he did it in Waitrose then the grocery industry is to blame.

The bigger issue here is the abandonment of any notion of protecting the public and punishing violent thugs. £100 is derisory, worse than no punishment at all.

The modern justice system is begging for vigilantism.

Budvar said...

I don't know the ins and out of the case, and neither does anyone else not actually there. Reading between the lines, this "15 yo Child" will not resemble Adrian Mole but will be 6' 2" and look 30.

I suspect that said "15 yo child" was actually squaring off at the guy and shooting his mouth off.

How can I reach such a conclusion? Easy, you don't get headbutted when you're legging it down the pitch trying to hide behind the ref shouting "Sir, sir, that fat blokes trying to get me!!".

Mike said...

I take youe point Rob that because a yobbish action occurs at a football match it does not automaticaly equate to football itself bieng a mecca for yobs. true this prick would probably expresshis behavoiur in a supermarket, post office on the south coast of Spain. But the idols of modern football do little or nothing to set a good example, in fact quite the opposite. True in the past they smoked, drank and were womanisers but today they are just yobs, plain and simple yobs. If I had children they would look to all sorts of other competative 'stars' of our time for a good example.

English Viking said...

If I was the kid's dad, I'd go round the bloke's house, knock on the door, knock him senseless and leave him a cheque for £250.00.

Money well spent.

JuliaM said...

"It has a worrying feel to it and just how far it could go."

Goodbye, great British justice system!

" I am ashamed that our country holds the modern game of football in such high respects."

It's like anything - taken to extreme, it's become an annoyance.

"I suspect that said "15 yo child" was actually squaring off at the guy and shooting his mouth off."

Maybe he was, maybe he wasn't. But that doesn't excuse the actions of the man OR the police, does it?

"If I was the kid's dad, I'd go round the bloke's house, knock on the door, knock him senseless and leave him a cheque for £250.00."

That's the risk, isn't it?