CHELSEA’S EDEN HAZARD has apologised after his extraordinary dismissal for kicking a ball boy during Chelsea’s League Cup semi-final second leg at Swansea City.
Wednesday’s match finished 0-0, giving Swansea a 2-0 aggregate victory, but the game was overshadowed by an incident 10 minutes from full-time that saw Hazard sent off for an altercation with a ball boy.
“The boy put his whole body onto the ball and I was just trying to kick the ball and I think I kicked the ball and not the boy. I apologise,” Hazard told Chelsea TV.
“The ball boy came in the changing room and we had a quick chat and I apologised and the boy apologised as well, and it is over. Sorry.”
South Wales police have announced that they will investigate the incident, but Swansea said the boy had told police he did not want to press charges.
“The police have interviewed the boy and his father and there are no charges going to be pressed. As far as they are concerned, that is the matter closed,” said a Swansea spokesman.
Advertisement
“The ball boy has been into the Chelsea dressing room after the game and shaken hands with Eden Hazard. The likes of John Terry and Frank Lampard were exemplary in their behaviour in welcoming him into the dressing room.
“Chelsea asked if he could come in and our kit lady took him in and they shook hands, he is fine.
‘Wasting time’
“As far as we are concerned, the matter is closed. He has been a ball boy here for six years with no incidents here at the stadium.”
Chelsea interim manager Rafael Benitez initially said the ball boy was “wasting time”, but he reacted angrily to claims he had condoned Hazard’s behaviour.
“I do not know what you expect from me,” he told reporters.
“Do you think we are not disappointed with the situation, that we do not regret what happened? Do you think they have not apologised?”
He added: “We will deal with this internally. We will analyse and wait to see if there is any action from the FA (Football Association).”
Chelsea at first reacted by questioning Foy’s decision to dismiss Hazard, writing on the club’s official Twitter account: “Has football gone mad? Hazard is sent off for kicking the ball under a ballboy attempting to smother the ball rather than return it.”
However, they subsequently issued an apology to their 1.79 million followers, saying: “Apologies for earlier ballboy tweet. Hazard has now met with the ballboy and has said sorry.”
Just another example of what makes them the most detestable club on the planet…officially defend it until cornered, then squirm their way out of it with an apology..similar to the attempts to damage mark clatenberg and their later “regret” . For all their money you’d think they could afford a better PR department, at the moment it sounds like John Terry does it!
I was looking at the incident very carefully. To me it looks like the ball boy was either going through a trained process. Picking the ball up, standing and then handing the ball back. He was on the floor and the player was trying to force the ball away from him. The natural reaction is to prevent this.
It’s not normal to kick a person!!!!!!!!
Most football players have small brains. That’s why they have agents. Hazard should be punished severely for this. Prosecuted by the Police and fined 20% of his annual pay.
Alternatively all young men will see this as acceptable. It’s quite disturbing that people see footballers as examples to us all. They just kick a football around!!!!
That is not a natural reaction to somebody looking for an object from you. It was the reaction of somebody making an eejit of themselves to waste time.
When’s the last time you instinctively lay down on an object when somebody looked for it?
Bull. So you expected Hazard to stand there while a ball boy laid on the ball with 10 mins to go in a cup semi. No pro worth his salt is gonna stand for that. Anyway he’s lucky it wasn’t some players of yester year they wouldn’t have stood for that.
Ballboy should be removed from his post. He has his 15 mins got and it was premeditated on his part… have you seen the ballboys tweet prior to the game? Hazard has received his punishment… I thought if referees dealt with it the fa couldn’t do anything further?
A grown man kicked a child in the ribs. There is no defending this, there is no video analysis that qualifies it and the fact that a football team might lose a game certainly doesn’t make it okay. A child got kicked in the ribs by a grown man, and there are people defending this? I’m baffled…
He’s 17, almost 18. He’s not a child. On his own twitter account he said he was planning to waste time. He’s an absolute a**hole for lying on the ball. As far as I see it Hazard kicked the ball from underneath him and should never have been sent off.
he kicked the ball not the boy. looking at the video, the earlier tweet, the way the ball moved and other videos I believe that hazard was unfairly sent off. it is a sad indictment of the game that even ball boys will cheat in a premeditated manner. that said, chelsea deserved to go out as they were rubbish. Although chelsea have not covered themselves in glory with the terry and clattenburg incidents Hazard should not be punished for the sins of his team mates.
He got about 10% ball 90% ribs, after pushing the lad as he bent down to pick up the ball, if he did this on the street he’d be up on assault charges, ther can not ever be any defence for a man to kick a child, disgraceful should be banned for 6 months without pay….
The ref could not just go check twitter its just a coincidence what the kid wrote, all ballboys are told to keep it slow in getting the ball back on the pitch if the home is ahead and speed it up if there behind, hazard pushed the kid and then kicked him hard into the ribs , if he got any of the ball I’d be amazed it just do happened the ball poped out the other side, it’s GBH plain and simple cantona got 120 community service for his kick hazard should get the same
“Kicked him hard in the ribs” and didn’t get any of the ball?! “10% ball 90% ribs”. Are you both blind?!? If he didn’t kick the ball how did it come out from under the “ball man”. Idiot, looking for his 15 minutes.
i remember in the champions league semi 2nd leg last season in the nou camp, every time the ball went out for a goal kick a ball-boy was standing there with a ball in his hands throwing it to Cech to get the game going as Chelsea were up, Cech was doing his best to walk behind the goals to retrieve the original ball and generally just slowing down the game- as you do when you are winning a semi-final, the shoe was just on the other foot for Chelsea last night and they didnt like it
Rashford scores first Premier League goal for Villa as Isak makes Newcastle history
9 mins ago
2
FreeClosing In
Liverpool's march towards Premier League title continues with win over Everton
27 mins ago
26
chance missed
Evan Ferguson endures tough night as Wolves take big step towards safety against West Ham
1 Apr
9
Sign in or create a free account
To continue reading create a free account
Or sign into an existing account
Your Cookies. Your Choice.
Cookies help provide our news service while also enabling the advertising needed to fund this work.
We categorise cookies as Necessary, Performance (used to analyse the site performance) and Targeting (used to target advertising which helps us keep this service free).
We and our 161 partners store and access personal data, like browsing data or unique identifiers, on your device. Selecting Accept All enables tracking technologies to support the purposes shown under we and our partners process data to provide. If trackers are disabled, some content and ads you see may not be as relevant to you. You can resurface this menu to change your choices or withdraw consent at any time by clicking the Cookie Preferences link on the bottom of the webpage .Your choices will have effect within our Website. For more details, refer to our Privacy Policy.Privacy Policy
We and our vendors process data for the following purposes:
Use precise geolocation data. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Store and/or access information on a device. Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development.
Cookies Preference Centre
We process your data to deliver content or advertisements and measure the delivery of such content or advertisements to extract insights about our website. We share this information with our partners on the basis of consent. You may exercise your right to consent, based on a specific purpose below or at a partner level in the link under each purpose. Some vendors may process your data based on their legitimate interests, which does not require your consent. You cannot object to tracking technologies placed to ensure security, prevent fraud, fix errors, or deliver and present advertising and content, and precise geolocation data and active scanning of device characteristics for identification may be used to support this purpose. This exception does not apply to targeted advertising. These choices will be signaled to our vendors participating in the Transparency and Consent Framework.
Manage Consent Preferences
Necessary Cookies
Always Active
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work.
Targeting Cookies
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
Functional Cookies
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then these services may not function properly.
Performance Cookies
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not be able to monitor our performance.
Store and/or access information on a device 110 partners can use this purpose
Cookies, device or similar online identifiers (e.g. login-based identifiers, randomly assigned identifiers, network based identifiers) together with other information (e.g. browser type and information, language, screen size, supported technologies etc.) can be stored or read on your device to recognise it each time it connects to an app or to a website, for one or several of the purposes presented here.
Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development 143 partners can use this purpose
Use limited data to select advertising 113 partners can use this purpose
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times an ad is presented to you).
Create profiles for personalised advertising 83 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service (such as forms you submit, content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (for example, information from your previous activity on this service and other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (that might include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present advertising that appears more relevant based on your possible interests by this and other entities.
Use profiles to select personalised advertising 83 partners can use this purpose
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on your advertising profiles, which can reflect your activity on this service or other websites or apps (like the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects.
Create profiles to personalise content 39 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service (for instance, forms you submit, non-advertising content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (such as your previous activity on this service or other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (which might for example include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present content that appears more relevant based on your possible interests, such as by adapting the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find content that matches your interests.
Use profiles to select personalised content 35 partners can use this purpose
Content presented to you on this service can be based on your content personalisation profiles, which can reflect your activity on this or other services (for instance, the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects. This can for example be used to adapt the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find (non-advertising) content that matches your interests.
Measure advertising performance 134 partners can use this purpose
Information regarding which advertising is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine how well an advert has worked for you or other users and whether the goals of the advertising were reached. For instance, whether you saw an ad, whether you clicked on it, whether it led you to buy a product or visit a website, etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of advertising campaigns.
Measure content performance 61 partners can use this purpose
Information regarding which content is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine whether the (non-advertising) content e.g. reached its intended audience and matched your interests. For instance, whether you read an article, watch a video, listen to a podcast or look at a product description, how long you spent on this service and the web pages you visit etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of (non-advertising) content that is shown to you.
Understand audiences through statistics or combinations of data from different sources 74 partners can use this purpose
Reports can be generated based on the combination of data sets (like user profiles, statistics, market research, analytics data) regarding your interactions and those of other users with advertising or (non-advertising) content to identify common characteristics (for instance, to determine which target audiences are more receptive to an ad campaign or to certain contents).
Develop and improve services 83 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service, such as your interaction with ads or content, can be very helpful to improve products and services and to build new products and services based on user interactions, the type of audience, etc. This specific purpose does not include the development or improvement of user profiles and identifiers.
Use limited data to select content 37 partners can use this purpose
Content presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type, or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times a video or an article is presented to you).
Use precise geolocation data 46 partners can use this special feature
With your acceptance, your precise location (within a radius of less than 500 metres) may be used in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Actively scan device characteristics for identification 27 partners can use this special feature
With your acceptance, certain characteristics specific to your device might be requested and used to distinguish it from other devices (such as the installed fonts or plugins, the resolution of your screen) in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Ensure security, prevent and detect fraud, and fix errors 92 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
Your data can be used to monitor for and prevent unusual and possibly fraudulent activity (for example, regarding advertising, ad clicks by bots), and ensure systems and processes work properly and securely. It can also be used to correct any problems you, the publisher or the advertiser may encounter in the delivery of content and ads and in your interaction with them.
Deliver and present advertising and content 99 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
Certain information (like an IP address or device capabilities) is used to ensure the technical compatibility of the content or advertising, and to facilitate the transmission of the content or ad to your device.
Match and combine data from other data sources 72 partners can use this feature
Always Active
Information about your activity on this service may be matched and combined with other information relating to you and originating from various sources (for instance your activity on a separate online service, your use of a loyalty card in-store, or your answers to a survey), in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Link different devices 53 partners can use this feature
Always Active
In support of the purposes explained in this notice, your device might be considered as likely linked to other devices that belong to you or your household (for instance because you are logged in to the same service on both your phone and your computer, or because you may use the same Internet connection on both devices).
Identify devices based on information transmitted automatically 88 partners can use this feature
Always Active
Your device might be distinguished from other devices based on information it automatically sends when accessing the Internet (for instance, the IP address of your Internet connection or the type of browser you are using) in support of the purposes exposed in this notice.
Save and communicate privacy choices 69 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
The choices you make regarding the purposes and entities listed in this notice are saved and made available to those entities in the form of digital signals (such as a string of characters). This is necessary in order to enable both this service and those entities to respect such choices.
Just another example of what makes them the most detestable club on the planet…officially defend it until cornered, then squirm their way out of it with an apology..similar to the attempts to damage mark clatenberg and their later “regret” . For all their money you’d think they could afford a better PR department, at the moment it sounds like John Terry does it!
I was looking at the incident very carefully. To me it looks like the ball boy was either going through a trained process. Picking the ball up, standing and then handing the ball back. He was on the floor and the player was trying to force the ball away from him. The natural reaction is to prevent this.
It’s not normal to kick a person!!!!!!!!
Most football players have small brains. That’s why they have agents. Hazard should be punished severely for this. Prosecuted by the Police and fined 20% of his annual pay.
Alternatively all young men will see this as acceptable. It’s quite disturbing that people see footballers as examples to us all. They just kick a football around!!!!
That is not a natural reaction to somebody looking for an object from you. It was the reaction of somebody making an eejit of themselves to waste time.
When’s the last time you instinctively lay down on an object when somebody looked for it?
Last night at rugby training
Bull. So you expected Hazard to stand there while a ball boy laid on the ball with 10 mins to go in a cup semi. No pro worth his salt is gonna stand for that. Anyway he’s lucky it wasn’t some players of yester year they wouldn’t have stood for that.
Ballboy should be removed from his post. He has his 15 mins got and it was premeditated on his part… have you seen the ballboys tweet prior to the game? Hazard has received his punishment… I thought if referees dealt with it the fa couldn’t do anything further?
No if the ref did noting the fa could not follow it up but because it will be in the report they can follow up with further investigation
A grown man kicked a child in the ribs. There is no defending this, there is no video analysis that qualifies it and the fact that a football team might lose a game certainly doesn’t make it okay. A child got kicked in the ribs by a grown man, and there are people defending this? I’m baffled…
He’s 17, almost 18. He’s not a child. On his own twitter account he said he was planning to waste time. He’s an absolute a**hole for lying on the ball. As far as I see it Hazard kicked the ball from underneath him and should never have been sent off.
And just for the record I’m a United fan.
Exactly Joe! “Child abuse”?! Only four years between them. It’s not like a 30 year old kicked a 5 year old.
Hazard wasnt much older than him hahahah-
i wouldve booted the brat in the head, he got his 5 mins of fame
he kicked the ball not the boy. looking at the video, the earlier tweet, the way the ball moved and other videos I believe that hazard was unfairly sent off. it is a sad indictment of the game that even ball boys will cheat in a premeditated manner. that said, chelsea deserved to go out as they were rubbish. Although chelsea have not covered themselves in glory with the terry and clattenburg incidents Hazard should not be punished for the sins of his team mates.
He got about 10% ball 90% ribs, after pushing the lad as he bent down to pick up the ball, if he did this on the street he’d be up on assault charges, ther can not ever be any defence for a man to kick a child, disgraceful should be banned for 6 months without pay….
The ref could not just go check twitter its just a coincidence what the kid wrote, all ballboys are told to keep it slow in getting the ball back on the pitch if the home is ahead and speed it up if there behind, hazard pushed the kid and then kicked him hard into the ribs , if he got any of the ball I’d be amazed it just do happened the ball poped out the other side, it’s GBH plain and simple cantona got 120 community service for his kick hazard should get the same
“Kicked him hard in the ribs” and didn’t get any of the ball?! “10% ball 90% ribs”. Are you both blind?!? If he didn’t kick the ball how did it come out from under the “ball man”. Idiot, looking for his 15 minutes.
i remember in the champions league semi 2nd leg last season in the nou camp, every time the ball went out for a goal kick a ball-boy was standing there with a ball in his hands throwing it to Cech to get the game going as Chelsea were up, Cech was doing his best to walk behind the goals to retrieve the original ball and generally just slowing down the game- as you do when you are winning a semi-final, the shoe was just on the other foot for Chelsea last night and they didnt like it
Normal reaction from a Welsh lad when he sees a ball just lying there. Don’t think rugby’s as popular in Belgium, thus Hazard’s confusion.
the Irish bankers got away with worse, ruined the economy
Get lost will ya noting to do with the story
I agree,too long the bankers have being gettin away with what their doing and like Hazard they should be punished
This is a distraction from the shite Chelsea played over both legs. The fat Spanish waiter must be secretly pleased’
Hazard will get a long ban?
Cantona got 9 months plus 2 week prison – reduced to 120hr comservice & that was for attack on adult :)