14 September 2009
Silly mAdebayor Loses All RESPECT
By Russell Drury
It is unfair to label all professional footballers’ wives as blonde airheads, nor is it true that every football supporter is a potential hooligan. It would also be wrong to say all footballers are not the sharpest tools in the drawer. Unfortunately, the ones that do fall into that latter category are the ones that get noticed. They are also the ones that typically feel the RESPECT campaign does not apply to them. Following the controversy emanating from the City of Manchester Stadium this weekend, sprint forward Emmanuel Adebayor.
There are some crass, nasty, foul-mouthed and violent people on the terraces at football matches, we saw evidence of this a couple of weeks ago in the West Ham – Millwall cup-tie. They are the kind of people who find it perfectly acceptable to walk into a public arena and shout every name under the sun to another human, just because he is wearing an opposing team’s shirt. Adebayor obviously received some stick on Saturday. Sol Campbell received it on every trip he made back to White Hart Lane, as did Frank Lampard at Upton Park, and there are countless others. It is unfair and disgusting and those identified making the vile gestures should be banned. But that is off the field.
On the field, professional footballers are earning millions to entertain with their football skills. Adebayor certainly showed his against Arsenal with a dazzling run as well as a fine headed goal. Job done you would think. Sadly not, as proven by the moment he decided to run the length of the pitch and launched knees-first into a slide in front of his former supporters, he reduced himself to the same level as those who had been hurling abuse at him throughout the game.
The important thing he forgot is that not every supporter behind that goal was there to have a go at him. There were families expecting to watch what was in the end a brilliant game of football. In an ideal world, maybe Adebayor would be able to make his point to the Arsenal supporters without any repercussions, but we are not in an ideal world and boisterous fans need little incitement.
Adebayor had a duty of respect to football in general to rise above the abuse. More importantly, crucially, he had a duty of respect to safety. His actions triggered a violent reaction among the Arsenal supporters. Objects were thrown onto the pitch and a steward was taken to hospital after being hit with a plastic seat. This could have been avoided had Adebayor counted to 10 in his head and celebrated with his teammates.
His disrespect did not stop there. A deliberate kick at Robin Van-Persie’s face was disgraceful. Does he not have any respect for a fellow professional, a former teammate and the thousands of children who look up to him?
Arsene Wenger was critical of UEFA for using video evidence to charge Eduardo for diving. Now though, it seems video evidence will be used to highlight an offence against one of his own players. Unfortunately for Arsenal it won’t change the outcome of the game.
The FA must punish Adebayor for two acts that are in total contrast to the RESPECT campaign. It is sad that the gloss was taken off such a fine game of football, and a man has made himself the villain of the day when he could and should have been the hero.
