Barton Fink

The footballer - Joey Barton - has a really excellent opinion piece in The Times newspaper today.

Now Barton has a well-deserved reputation as a fierce and combative person - both on and off the field - but he certainly gave me cause to stop and think.

That ballboy was no boy.

And he has questions to answer

Hazard shouldn’t have been sent off.

But sure, slap his wrists.

Chelsea’s Eden Hazard kicks a ballboy. That’s the story. People are up in arms, the majority attacking Hazard, a few praising him. Some newspapers are almost calling for him to be publicly executed for this heinous crime.

Before we all get too carried away, we should think about the context of the incident and dish out retribution fair and square.

Firstly, the label “ballboy”. Let’s cut through the sensationalism— we’re not talking of a 12-year-old, as implied by the Swansea captain’s comment: “I saw Hazard kick him in the ribs. You can’t do that to a kid.”

Rubbish. This is a young guy aged 17, big enough, it appears, to be living the adult high life if you look at his Twitter feed. He is, in fact, employed by Swansea City FC, a self-declared massive Swansea fan and the son apparently of the 32nd richest man in Wales, who happens to be on the club’s board. Professional ballboys? Since when, in a professional game where top-level assistant referees are part-time and independent, can ballboys be club employees?

The police won’t be charging Hazard. The ballboy’s dad won’t be pressing charges either. Why? Have we seen bruising or a scar? Maybe it was to do with a pre-match tweet sent by our “boy”: “The king of all ballboys is back making his final appearance #needed #for #timewasting.”

All this prior to the incident. So, was our wealthy rich “kid”, with a taste for Veuve Clicquot and heir to a hotel empire, predicting doing something that would cause a reaction?

I don’t think Eden Hazard kicked him, though of course he is asking for a public reaction attempting to kick a ball from underneath the guy. However, there is a big difference between trying to toe-poke the ball from underneath an imbecile laid over the ball and actually kicking someone in the ribs. Just ask Eyal Berkovic. He’ll still likely to be wearing the boot imprint of Big John Hartson.

I don’t think Hazard should have been sent off. If the “ballperson” had thrown the ball back as he was employed to do, instead of trying to mount it, then Hazard would have had no reason to retrieve it from under him in the frantic closing minutes of the game.

Yes, Hazard maybe should know better as a pro in the spotlight — and remember this is a man trying to help his club reach a cup final, someone paid an awful lot of money to ensure team success.

Sure, slap Hazard’s wrists, I don’t think it’s right that he goes without a word in his ear. It’s annoying to Chelsea’s hierarchy, no doubt, but let’s not overstate it.

Joey Barton plays for Marseilles and blogs at joeybarton.com