About a month ago on Feb. 18 Tottenham Hotspur (aka Spurs) defeated seven-time European champions AC Milan on their own ground at the San Siro Stadium a historic night no Spurs fan will ever forget. Liverpool “Reds” hitman Peter Crouch netted the winner in the 80th minute. To the neutral spectator however Gennaro Gattuso’s infamous shove in the throat and consequent head butt on Spurs assistant coach Joe Jordan at the full time whistle marks one of the greatest days in Spurs history. The irony lies in the fact that a list compiled by English newspaper The Times in 2007 ranked Jordan as the 34th toughest man in the history of the game yet here was Gattuso diminutive in stature physically assaulting the former Scottish international.
In a badly tempered game in which Mathieu Flamini was lucky not to see a red card after a horrendous tackle on Spurs’ Vedran Corluka (who was stretchered off as a result) Gattuso gave the viewers a taste of what was to come later on when he verbally taunted Jordan at the half-time whistle. An in-depth analysis of Gattuso’s actions in comparison to those of Chelsea’s Didier Drogba at the full time whistle in a Champions League second-leg game with Barcelona at Stamford Bridge reveals a lack of consistency in UEFA’s governing body. Gattuso’s one match ban for violent conduct makes a mockery of UEFA’s impartiality considering that Drogba was banned for four European matches (later changed to three) for simply verbally abusing referee Tom Henning Ovrebo after the Norwegian referee had a dreadful performance in which he denied Chelsea at least two clear stonewall penalties in a game that ended 1-1 (Barcelona’s Andres Iniesta equalized in the 93rd minute to send Barcelona through to the final on the Away Goal’s rule). Drogba’s actions were unacceptable but pale in comparison to those of Gattuso yet Drogba’s ban was three times worse. Whatever the reason it appears that the Chelsea player was over-punished and the self-proclaimed Italian hard-man was let off lightly.
Gattuso’s violent outburst seen in the beautiful game makes a mockery of the efforts of FIFA and UEFA to eradicate the violence seen in the sport. Only a few months have passed since the dreadful outburst of violence in the European Championship qualifying game between Italy and Serbia on October 12th2010 in which these Ultra Serbian (so called) fans threw flares and rocks onto the pitch a night remembered for this case of classic football hooliganism. The match was immediately abandoned with UEFA subsequently awarding Italy a 3-0 win. This incident coupled with the recent behaviors of the English Premier League’s Joey Barton (Newcastle) and Karl Henry (Wolverhampton Wanderers) both chief culprits of horrendous acts of violence that went unpunished as well as Gattuso’s behavior in AC Milan’s Champions League match against Tottenham brings up the issue as to why violence is still so prominent in the world’s most popular sport. Michel Platini and Sepp Blatter presidents of UEFA and FIFA respectively already have critics across the world and will continue to do so until something substantial and consistent is done to permanently eradicate the violence seen in soccer today.
