Balotelli’s latest moment of madness (the ref definitely didn’t see it!)

Another weekend of big matches in the English football calendar and another Monday morning where the football doesn’t make the headlines.  Or so it would seem if you picked up a paper or flicked open an English based website to see the face of Manchester City’s bad boy striker, Mario Balotelli staring back at you thanks to his latest run-in with indiscipline. But in this case the incident did have a big impact on the game itself, and it was certainly  a relief for it to be something other than the brandishing of fake cards by players, or indeed managers. Balotelli’s stamp on the face of Spurs midfielder Scott Parker — “Scott has a lovely cut on his head,” said his manager, Harry Redknapp — should have seen the City player sent off. As it turned out the referee missed it, Balotelli stayed on, won a penalty and stepped up to convert it and win the game for City. Cue the outrage from Redknapp.

“The first [stamp] could be an accident, but the second one? He’s backheeled him straight in the head,” blasted Redknapp. “I don’t like talking about people kicking players in the head,” he continued, talking about people kicking players in the head, “but when you see that, it’s wrong.” At least he didn’t come flying off the bench waving an imaginary red card in the direction of the referee, though I wish he had for it would have been brilliant to see the reaction of Roberto Mancini who no doubt would have come out this morning to complain about such an action.

Balotelli’s stamp on Parker was cynical, dangerous and with the referee missing the incident earned him a ‘charge’ by the F.A. for violent conduct and the likelihood of a four game ban. He of course has the right to respond to the charges but you’d have to be wired a little strange to think any appeal would be successful given the video evidence in this case. With that in mind expect Balotelli to appeal the moment the ban is handed down.

Yesterday’s action was billed as ‘Revenge Sunday’ as Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal looked to strike back against Manchester City and United respectively after both sides had inflicted savage beatings on the two North London sides earlier in the season. Revenge Sunday never quite panned out as some might have hoped however as both Manchester sides beat both London sides once again, though the results were not quite as dramatic. Indeed, the best they could muster were 3-2 (for City) and 2-1 (for United). But it was the Balotelli drama that snatched the headlines away from a good goal or pass or something dull like that.

Still, for the bad of Balotelli (this stamp and his red card just a few weeks ago against Liverpool), I can’t help but like the man. He’s an eccentric, a enigma, but the game is severely lacking in characters who are made up of such qualities and because of it, for the most part, he’s a breath of fresh air. Perhaps not since the days of Eric Cantona has the league had someone like Balotelli. You never quite know what he is going to do next and it’s easy to forget sometimes that he is just 21 years of age. The best of him, and perhaps the worst, is still to come and while Roberto Mancini will hope with age comes maturity, I know I hope experience and maturity doesn’t settle him down too much.

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Interesting fact

With 36 points so far this season, 5th placed Arsenal are closer on goal difference to the relegation zone than the top of the table. So as for the likes of Liverpool in 7th? Well, it doesn’t read too well. And neither for the league itself if the gap is so fierce, though it has to be said the top of the league table (by that I mean the first two down to 7th) and the teams in the hunt for relegation has been as competitive as I can remember for a while.

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Other guff

During the past weeks hoopla surrounding the waving of imaginary red cards, perhaps the best analysis of the entire thing came from a blog on The Guardian website by Barry Glendenning that described it all as “the dark art of attempting to get opposing players dismissed is a particularly cynical, dishonest and Italian innovation that has infiltrated the otherwise impregnable fortress of moral fortitude and playful innocence that is the Premier League.”

Away from the courts of F.A. discipline and public opinion and into the real courts of justice, but sticking with Harry Redknapp: The Spurs manager has been accused of opening an offshore account to avoid tax on payments of £189,500. He’s been accused of opening an offshore bank account in Monaco, as you do, to take a “bung” (football technical term) from Milan Mandaric, the former Portsmouth chairman.

The evil spectre that hangs over world football, Sepp Blatter, has claimed that Uefa president Michel Platini is “ready” to succeed him as head of Fifa. All well and good there, right? Sadly, it would appear Blatter is still up for hanging around until 2015. “He will be a good president of course. He will not be the same president as me, because everyone is different, but he will be good president,” droned Blatter. The idea of anyone replacing Blatter is promising, but what’s slightly concerning is that it’s someone Blatter is enforcing. Then again, Platini may be a “good president” but he cannot be much worse.

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