Viewing Thread:
"The Jamie Carragher Incident."

Recently there has been a sharp rise in the amount of missiles & projectiles thrown onto the pitch. Before the Arsenal v Liverpool game, we saw Les Ferdinand nearly hit by a bottle in the Worthington Cup game against Chelsea, and it's happened numerous times before that as well.

I'm a Liverpool supporter, but I did think the ref was right to send off Jamie Carragher.
But, & pardon the pun, this debate is a two sided coin.

Side 1: His (well paid) job is to play football, if a teacher lashed out at a badly behaved pupil what would happen to the teacher, suspension? The sack? Possibly even prison?
Part of a footballers money is to show discipline & restraint, whether it be items thrown or racial abuse etc, so any physical action (like Eric Cantona) is totally wrong.
Liverpool could have gone on to win the match with 11 players v 9 players, who knows (although they wouldn't have deserved it.)
Jamie knows he was wrong, and has since apologised to players, fans, etc, but most of all, he let himself down in the heat of the moment.


Side 2: We shouldn't be so quick to judge people, because for anyone who has seen live football or just on t.v, all players get a hell of a lot stick from rival (so called) supporters, so many of us, in his shoes (boots) might have reacted in the same way.
Footballers are there to provide entertainment, and should feel safe in their workplace, without the constant threat of serious injury (i.e blindness) from a moron who throws items onto the playing area.
Clubs need to take swift & harsh action against any guilty hooligans, so the problem is sorted out before someone gets hurt. Maybe even impose fines on clubs or deduct them league points if any of their fans are guilty of missile throwing.
What if one day, God forbid, a player is blinded by a coin or knocked unconscious by a bottle? It could have far reaching implications for football. Players could go on strike until better safety features, such as plastic screens are implemented into stadiums.
Perhaps clubs could introduce/encourage a scheme where-by fans can report violent or excessively abusive fans.
Like every other football fan, I shout at the t.v when my team doesn't perform, but if i was in the stadium, I would never contemplate throwing things at players and it's a shame that some people think that this is acceptable behaviour.
I'm sure that many footballers have wanted to do what Jamie did for all the times they have suffered in similar incidents, but have managed to control their behaviour. It was only a matter of time till a player reacted in this way.

So, Carragher is guilty, but the coin-throwing idiots should take the majority of the blame.

I'd like to hear other people's (unbiased) views on the issue.

Thanks.

Well, everyone - including Wenger - can say what they like. I still maintain that Arsenal are not a dirty team.

Many of our red cards have been, in my view, unwarranted. We try to play flowing, entertaining football, and ususally succeed. When you see us play teams like Leeds and the amount of niggly ankle-hacking tackles they put in trying to disrupt us, and they constantly get away with it, it's no wonder that some retaliation arises.

Our players - particularly the likes of Bergkamp, Pires, Vieira - anyone with outstanding ball skills - gets persistantly hacked at through a game, and little or nothing is done. Then they finally flip, and are dismissed.

If you were to watch replays of all of our red-card incidents, I bet you half of them would be harsh or outright wrong.

Remember me saying somthin about Arsenal dominating more games at home becasue of the size of the pitch?

Well Wenger has gone one better!

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When asked why Arsenal's disciplinary record was still so much worse than any other club's Wenger insisted it was linked to the size of the pitch - 110 yards by 73 yards - at Highbury.

"There is something about the size of the pitch at home. It is tighter and more compact," he argued.

"We have a dynamic way of playing. Everyone defends well, and we put opponents under pressure - so there's more physical contact. On a bigger pitch, you have less contact."

But of Arsenal's 10 red cards this season, half have been shown at Highbury. Six other clubs - Bolton, Derby, Everton, Ipswich, Newcastle and West Ham - have smaller pitches than the Gunners too.

Solskjær_24 wrote:
> What about lasers

Automated turrets to cut invading fans in half.

Then next time United are being beaten at OT, all their players can stand still... someone up in the TV enclosure will flip a switch, and the offending (i.e. winning) team will be vapourised.

:-)

But having fences would mean no-more pitch invasions in the lower leagues, and the atmosphere would therefore decrease from the relegation battles!! And with fences, i'm sure you could still throw coins and small objetcs through the gaps. And they can't make them too complex, or else you can't see the game, only a fence!

What about lasers, like on that episode of The Simpsons. The one in the future, about Lisa's true love, where you throw a rock at a house and lasers instantly destroy it!! Sure it'd cost a lot, but most players could probably afford it on their own!!

In an ideal world, those standing next to the coin throwers would have pointed them out to the police/stewards anyway.

Not that anyone has, but let's not get this out of proportion - this madness goes on everywhere, at many grounds, every week... and it has done for ages. Only a few weeks ago, Spurs fans attacked the coach of a visiting team - and (surprise surprise) the FA decided no action was necessary.

The *only* reason that this has blown up is because Carragher threw the coin back. It was going to happen sooner or later - it just happened to be Carragher who snapped.

The nets have been mentioned on a few TV reports, but as someone pointed out, a net does not necessarily stop coins.

I also think that the FA will be reluctant to authorise anything which prevents people getting quickly and safely onto the pitch, due to the Hillsborough incident.

Hmmm, they've tracked down the supporter Carraher hit...he has got a small speck on his forehead...

Surely they can track down the fool who through it? Could be pritty hard though, it wasnt just one Arsenal fan doing it.

Time to introduce fences/nets arond English football pitches? Its getting out of hand now. Some of the grounds in Italy and Spain have them, before someone gets hurt they really think about introducing these.

Ben Hodgetts wrote:
> hey ortega at least wenger actually saw the bergkamp incident this time.

LOL :D

Surprising, very surprising...You would have thought he would have ignored it...what with all the other action going on in and around the game!

Etila wrote:
> Bergkamp was rightly send off, it wasn't what he did it was what he intended to
> do. Which was to hurt Carragher as they had been aggravating eachother.

As I said below, Carragher was on the ground and not moving. Had bergkamp intended to connect, it would have been easier to do so than to make no contact.

Even so, if Bergkamp deserved the sending off, then so did Heskey, as his 'challenge' on Richard Wright was just as bad, and DID connect. In fact, Heskey did nothing but run into people and make reckless challenges all afternoon. There were at least 4 occasions when he *should* have received a second yellow card, if not a straight red.


> Arsenal still won so I dunno why you gooners are complaining...

Inconsistent refereeing, yet again - that's why.

As for the coin throwing - Carragher should receive the same punishment as whatever idiot threw the coin at him - if they track that person/people down.

Don't get me wrong - I don't condone the coin throwing. Those responsible, if found, should be charged with assault and banned not only from Highbury, but every football stadium in the UK. But two people, one a woman, were injured by that coin and want him arrested and charged. And rightly so. The thing about throwing the coin back into the crowd is that he had no way of knowing who had thrown it at him, and he was always more likely to hit an innocent person - or people, as is the case. Suppose he'd hit a child with it?

I agree that Carragher made a stupid descision for a 'top' Premiership pro., and he should have just rolled it off of the pitch if he wanted it gone! But if he did it cuz of anger, then he should have just hurled abuse at the fans, rather than hurling money! But he doesn't care, as he earns enough of it each week!!

hey ortega at least wenger actually saw the bergkamp incident this time.