Thursday 24 August 2006

Criminal Assault

I don't know how to post the actual You Tube video on screen as others do, but click here to see Manchester City's defender Ben Thatcher playing the "beautiful game".

Replace the green field with a city centre street and the referee with a policeman and Mr Thatcher would have been in front of a Magistrate by now and would be back in custody facing a Crown Court appearance and a jail sentence.

That the FA sits on its hands and claims that the referee's decision is final just compounds an already contemptable situation.

Football is not, has never been and, until such time as proper control is taken of the thugs/players, it will never be the "Beautiful Game".

The flow of the game must now necessarily be compromised to allow another referee behind a video screen to support the one on the pitch. The alternative, and the one I would prefer, is to allow the police to walk onto a pitch at any stage of teh game and arrest any player they witness assaulting another.

If soldiers can be arrested, prosecuted and jailed for crossing the line on the battlefield, I am damn sure footballers can be prosecuted for assault on a football pitch.

1 comment:

Tom Greeves said...

Thatcher wouldn't last five minutes on a rugby union or rugby league pitch. And I much prefer football to rugby. But it's true.