De Jong

[Pilko]

Would never want to involve the police like. Glad we are complaining to the FA, but it should be the footballing authorities dealing with it, not the police.

 

Why on earth not? Do you live on Albert Square or something and don't want "the old bill" involved?

[Ash]

Taking it too far man, if the ball was nowhere near them, then maybe, but as far as I'm concerned the only incident I've seen that was assault was Ben Thatcher on Pedro Mendes.

 

I'd rank de Jong's assault in the World Cup Final alongside that too.

[Segun Oluwaniyi]

This idea of police intervention is pathetically stupid and reactionary. However much you disliked it, it was a "football action". It was a tackle, albeit a bad one. Thousands of tackles occur every weekend. It is a football matter. If he breaks HBA's face with a punch on the pitch during a brawl, than maybe you can cry assault.

[GM]

If we're treating it as a crime, how far do we go. Any player that gets any injury through a bad tackle gets taken through the courts. It would ruin the game! The footballing laws should be tightend and players should be punished by the FA. I'm as upset and annoyed as anyone about Ben Arfa and that fuckin cunt de Jong.

 

Yeah, true, it could potentially ruin the game...but then I would argue that the conduct of the likes of De Jong and his cynical, dangerous style of "play" is putting the future of the game into just as much jeopardy. If Ben Arfa doesn't recover from this, we'll all have been deprived of watching a potentially great talent blossom in a way which would have brought flair and colour and passion to the game. Meanwhile, we all get to endure the turgid, reckless, soul-crushingly awful butchery of the likes of De Jong getting away with it, week after week.

[James]

To be honest if I was manager on Sunday, I would have performed a citizens arrest on de Jong and Atkinson during the match.

[GM]

For me, it's as simple as this: you either have a situation where a player's conduct on the field of play is beyond the long arm of the law, and the only sanctions which should be applied when they commit a career-threatening foul on another player are disciplinary ones by the FA, or alternatively, you have a good, long, hard think about whether perhaps in certain instances what has actually happened on the field of play is a criminal assault occasioning grievous bodily harm.

 

If you agree and accept that football is a contact sport, then you can rightly expect sometimes to see pretty gruesome injuries occur...and I guess you just have to shrug your shoulders, and say it's all part of the game, and that's the risk that the players accept when they take to the pitch on match days. However, if you do accept that point, then what right do you have to bleat on about someone from an opposing team having cynically knacked your star player?

[Dave]

To be honest if I was manager on Sunday, I would have performed a citizens arrest on de Jong and Atkinson during the match.

 

[Guest ObiChrisKenobi]

Taking it too far man, if the ball was nowhere near them, then maybe, but as far as I'm concerned the only incident I've seen that was assault was Ben Thatcher on Pedro Mendes.

 

Roy Keane on Inge Haaland.

[Guest BooBoo]

Baba- quite simply a load of nonsense.

 

Football can continue to bury its head in the sand but until stronger action is taken, we will continue to see the likes of Ben Arfa, Ramsay and Eduardo (players that make the game exciting) kicked to pieces by spoilers with no deterrent other than a piffling 3 match ban

[Parky]

Taking it a bit far IMO.

 

Appreciate it's not a cut and dry sort of issue, mate...but honestly, when you see a repeat offender like De Jong getting paid f** knows how much a week to neutralise genuinely talented players by knacking them, it gets to be something a bit more than a disciplinary matter for the FA to deal with, in my opinion. When you have someone behaving like that, basically being a thug, it's bordering on criminality in my view, and needs to be dealt with as such...or at least in a way where the player in question realises that he doesn't have some sort of diplomatic immunity from the justice system whilst on the field of play.

 

Totally agree. It was a criminal act and one that was I'm sure pre-meditated. The club should investigate legal recourse if that is possible (not sure it is or what the actual rules are). It might be that this tackle might rob Ben Afra of a meaningful career in a sport he has graced since a teenager. This is a monumentous tragedy for him as a person and someone who is clear loves the game. The price of playing football has been too high in this case. Tragedy.

[JJ7]

If we're treating it as a crime, how far do we go. Any player that gets any injury through a bad tackle gets taken through the courts. It would ruin the game! The footballing laws should be tightend and players should be punished by the FA. I'm as upset and annoyed as anyone about Ben Arfa and that fuckin c*** de Jong.

 

Yeah, true, it could potentially ruin the game...but then I would argue that the conduct of the likes of De Jong and his cynical, dangerous style of "play" is putting the future of the game into just as much jeopardy. If Ben Arfa doesn't recover from this, we'll all have been deprived of watching a potentially great talent blossom in a way which would have brought flair and colour and passion to the game. Meanwhile, we all get to endure the turgid, reckless, soul-crushingly awful butchery of the likes of De Jong getting away with it, week after week.

I agree, but the way to do it is through harsher penalties in the game, not through the law courts.

[Guest BooBoo]

As I've said before it's perfectly possible to charge for such leg breaking challenges.

 

It seems to be thought of as not the done thing in football though. No player just by stepping onto the field accepts thy anything that comes their way is just part of the game.

[Guest BooBoo]

The point is JJ the FA is so backward and stuck in their ways that if you want any semblance of justice you have to go above and beyond their dismal administration.

[Parky]

If we're treating it as a crime, how far do we go. Any player that gets any injury through a bad tackle gets taken through the courts. It would ruin the game! The footballing laws should be tightend and players should be punished by the FA. I'm as upset and annoyed as anyone about Ben Arfa and that fuckin c*** de Jong.

 

Yeah, true, it could potentially ruin the game...but then I would argue that the conduct of the likes of De Jong and his cynical, dangerous style of "play" is putting the future of the game into just as much jeopardy. If Ben Arfa doesn't recover from this, we'll all have been deprived of watching a potentially great talent blossom in a way which would have brought flair and colour and passion to the game. Meanwhile, we all get to endure the turgid, reckless, soul-crushingly awful butchery of the likes of De Jong getting away with it, week after week.

I agree, but the way to do it is through harsher penalties in the game, not through the law courts.

 

I don't think there are any penalties harsh enough in the game. If going legal sets a precedent, then that will be the biggest deterrant to these butchers. Days later and I can't believe how angry and sadened I still am.  :-[

[Thespence]

I discovered today that a gateway to charge grievous bodily harm exists in situations like this, where despite being a lawful game with tackling allowed, reckless force causes serious injury.

 

Never mind writing to the police, The Club should be complaining to Greater Manchester Police. 

 

A precedent should be set to deter these leg breaking challenges.

 

I can see the going for the ball defence becoming a lot more widespread. If your going to whack someone put a ball at there feet then kick it away while shooting/stabbing them & when the rozzza's turn up say "I got the ball though".

[Segun Oluwaniyi]

Baba- quite simply a load of nonsense.

 

Football can continue to bury its head in the sand but until stronger action is taken, we will continue to see the likes of Ben Arfa, Ramsay and Eduardo (players that make the game exciting) kicked to pieces by spoilers with no deterrent other than a piffling 3 match ban

It's not a load of nonsense, man. You all have gone mad. It's a bad tackle that has caused a bad injury. Fine. This is understood. People's legs are broken on the pitch all of the time. We can increase the penalties for bad tackles within football. This is acceptable It's the same as charging a racing car pilot with murder because he made a bad move that led to a deadly accident. This would be madness. Football is not the same as walking on the street, and there are inherent risks when you walk on the pitch. You don't call the police after every incident. That is literal insanity. The only way police could get involved is if there is an incident that is far separated from what is part of football. De Jong's tackle was not that.

[Guest BooBoo]

The amount of pundits defending it with "he got the ball though"'says everything about some of the planks masquerading as experts of the game.

[madras]

The amount of pundits defending it with "he got the ball though"'says everything about some of the planks masquerading as experts of the game.

you still get players and fans doing it now with tackles from behind.

[madras]

Baba- quite simply a load of nonsense.

 

Football can continue to bury its head in the sand but until stronger action is taken, we will continue to see the likes of Ben Arfa, Ramsay and Eduardo (players that make the game exciting) kicked to pieces by spoilers with no deterrent other than a piffling 3 match ban

It's not a load of nonsense, man. You all have gone mad. It's a bad tackle that has caused a bad injury. Fine. This is understood. People's legs are broken on the pitch all of the time. We can increase the penalties for bad tackles within football. This is acceptable It's the same as charging a racing car pilot with murder because he made a bad move that led to a deadly accident. This would be madness. Football is not the same as walking on the street, and there are inherent risks when you walk on the pitch. You don't call the police after every incident. That is literal insanity. The only way police could get involved is if there is an incident that is far separated from what is part of football. De Jong's tackle was not that. 

no-one said every incident, only those where there was an element of deliberateness.

[Guest BooBoo]

Baba do you genuinely think the laws of this country cease to apply when players walk onto a football pitch?

[Parky]

His player registration shold be cancelled for 3 years. Send a fucking message.

[Thespence]

Baba do you genuinely think the laws of this country cease to apply when players walk onto a football pitch?

 

I have always wondered why police at rugby games or ice hockey do not get in the mix when they see a fight, should they be marching onto the pitch or waiting at the side of ice pad?

[Guest BooBoo]

Police would have to investigate though if a complaint was made.

[Guest firetotheworks]

BRING BACK THE DEATH PENALTY.

 

 

 

 

I just thought us ten pages or so, by cutting to it.

[Tsunami]

I've read a fair few opinions on this tackle/ assault. There are mixed opinions on whether it was intended or not but when compared to Henry's tackle it is accepted that Henry's was worse. I've seen both challenges a good number of times and De Jongs is far worse. Henry lunges in at full speed but his feet are low, are not aimed at the man and the other player is travelling at speed. The result is a spectacular somersault and there is no doubt that it was a wild, uncontrolled tackle that could have been an ankle breaker. There was nothing crafty about it at all.

 

What gets me with De Jong's challenge was that it was a cowardly, almost sneaky, free hit on the player. Ben Arfa couldn't see the challenge coming, so couldn't react to it and De Jong went off the ground to take out a stationary player and then brought his following leg through to hit Ben arfa's standing leg just below the knee.

 

There is no doubt in my mind that it was a far worse challenge and the fact that some supposed experts are trying to defend it as part of the game leaves me cold.