Footballers Behaving Badly

I have to confess to a love of football – the real kind, not that barstardisation of rugby developed by Americans.

My passion is shared by millions, not just in UK but world-wide. Many of these avid armchair fans would agree that the most exciting is that of the premier league in England and it is a multi-million pound industry.

Top football players can earn in excess of GBP80,000 a week – more than the average teacher or social worker will earn in a three year period. Now there is no doubt that these players are very gifted and talented in their field (no pun intended), yet one can’t help that such wages might not really be justifiable.

Of course these young men are not known for having much education; more often than not signing on for professional contracts at sixteen, and an intelligent footballer is like finding a washed up whale in The Thames – extremely rare!

Football players are also not immune to a bit of thuggery. Take the case of Steven Gerrard who was up in court last month for assault having attacked a barman after celebrating a 5 – 1 victory against Newcastle where he netted two of the goals.

Now Stevie G as he is affectionally known is both the Liverpool captain and a regular English international player. He is particularly loved on the Merseyside city as he is one of just two regular players that hale from Liverpool.

Now despite a request from Gerrard, the barman refused to change the music – “no” being a word he is not used to hearing being uttered on his “home patch.” An argument soon ensued and Stevie G was clearly caught on CCTV cameras throwing three swift punches to the barman's head leading to a broken tooth and four stitches to the man’s head.

Gerrard pleaded not guilty in the Liverpool court and claimed that he had to get his punches in first before he was attacked. An interesting defence! Even more interestingly, but maybe not surprisingly, Gerrard received a not guilty verdict. Hoorah for the British justice system!

Of course it’s not just English footballers who like to behave badly. The brilliant Four Four Two football magazine ran a story in it September edition about the gifted, but volatile Mao Jingquing who plays for Shanghai Shenua Newcastle.

Mao first ran into trouble as a youth player after kicking a fan and attacked the referee. After he broke into the first team he was quickly demoted after drunkenly kicking in the door of his manager’s car. Eager-to-please apprentices were caught smuggling in beer to the dressing room. After Shanghai narrowly missed out on the Chinese title, Mao kicked punched and ash-trayed a diner who was looking at one of his female companions. He was released from police custody after issuing a public apology.